Plans are coming into focus for a hotel to enrich care for Gundersen Health System patients, their families and the community.
MBA Architects and developer Premier Hotel Properties will soon present designs for the hotel – Gundersen Hotel and Suites – to the City of La Crosse for review.
"Each year hundreds of thousands of patients and their loved ones visit our La Crosse Campus," says Mark Platt, senior vice president, Business Services. "Many travel an hour or more to their appointments from communities in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota and often need accommodations while in La Crosse. This hotel will strengthen the already great experience patients and their families receive at Gundersen."
The hotel, which will also be open to the public, is expected to have 65 rooms, including 16 extended-stay rooms, to allow families quick, easy access to loved ones when they’re having surgery, or receiving treatment for an illness, and a place to sleep, refresh and gather.
A hotel in the Powell-Poage-Hamilton Neighborhood is a priority identified in the 2006 development agreement – and its amended version in 2012 – between Gundersen and the City. Pending City approval, construction could begin as early as this summer.
Gundersen Hotel and Suites is to be constructed on the parking lot just north of the Gundersen Founders Building and next to South Avenue. The parking lot will tentatively close in late April or early May for site preparation work.