Flexible and transformative design, new equipment and technolo- gies, and bettering community health as well as patient access to timely, affordable care are key elements in Straub Medical Center’s plan for a new 750,000-square-foot campus, Hawai‘i Pacific Health President and CEO Ray Vara said at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday.

The 5-acre center will take up nearly the entire city block where the current center sits between South King Street, Ward Avenue, South Hotel Street and Kealamakai Street. Bit by bit since 1926, all the parcels in the block except for the King Manor Condominiums have been acquired by Straub, he said.

At nearly triple the size of the existing center, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, the new campus, which could cost up to $1 billion, will be “not just a replacement or a rebuilding, but more of a campus that really promotes our view of what health care for the community should be into the future,” Vara said. He was referring to the vision and legacy of founding physician George F. Straub of a clinic “where patients always come first,” according to Straub.

Vara said the project was also the fulfilment of a promise he made to the physicians of Straub soon after he came on board in 2002 “that we would match our facility and technology with their skills and with Straub’s history of bringing the best and brightest talents to Hawaii,” and keeping them engaged by providing the space, tools and resources they need.

“Hawaiians are always thinking about the future,” said Kahu Kekoa Cordell, as he had Vara and Straub doctors hold a long maile lei representing continuity of the past and the next 100 years, as he sprinkled water from ti leaves.

Next, Vara and other Hawai‘i Pacific Health and Straub Medical Center leaders and board members pounded wooden o’o sticks into a mound of earth “to loosen the dirt to plant something new,” the kahu said as he sprinkled a little Hawaiian salt “into the ‘aina to make sure the Hawaiian people are part of (the project).”

Various state and city officials were in attendance, including state House of Representatives Speaker Scott Saiki and Rep. Ryan Yamane, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and City Council members Calvin Say and Brandon Elefante.

After the ceremony, Blangiardi said that as a longtime Straub patient himself, whose three children were born in HPH affiliate Kapi‘olani Medical Center, he was especially pleased.

“Straub is where I come for my checkups; my cardiologist is here, and my wife, Karen Chang, is a former chair of the HPH board of directors,” the mayor said.

The new medical center buildings will be designed by architects HDR Inc. with larger patient and operating rooms, as well as additional space for the emergency department.

Flexible design elements will reflect the medical center’s response during the pandemic surge to expand hospital capacity.

A new parking garage also will be designed with flexibility, allowing conversion of its floors into expanded clinical services, if needed.

Team-based care settings will include telehealth rooms.

In addition to a “one-stop health campus,” Vara said after the ceremony, “there will be education and learning outreach to the community on how to lead a healthier lifestyle.”

Completion will proceed in stages up to 15 years, without interrupting hospital and clinical operations, he said.

Straub physician John Mickey said he was “super excited” about the project.

“I hope I live long enough to see it completed,” added Mickey, 74.