PORTLAND — Construction on Maine Medical Center’s new Malone Family Tower hit a milestone today as construction crews held the traditional “topping off” ceremony, a long-standing practice amongst builders.

The beam added to the 265,000-square-foot Malone Family Tower was covered with signatures of MMC care team members, many of them writing personal messages that are now a permanent part of the new tower being erected on Congress Street.

Contractors working with Turner Construction used a crane to lift that beam, along with an American flag, and a second beam signed by construction workers.

“The construction teams are making amazing progress on this important new building,” said MMC President Jeff Sanders, in a news release. “I’m glad so many of our care team members were able to sign their names on the beam, symbolically joining us in the future of Maine Medical Center.”

This new cardiovascular medical tower is the final piece of MMC’s Master Facilities Plan, and will reorient the hospital to Congress Street, expand availability of private rooms and provide state-of-the-art procedure rooms centered on cardiovascular care. It is expected to open in 2024.

The building will have a total of seven floors plus a basement, with a new patient units totaling 96 beds in private rooms once the building opens. MMC is building a new Sterile Processing Department – which sterilizes all instruments for surgeries and other procedures – to the top of the building, as well.

The new tower allows MMC to internally reorganize cardiovascular services within the hospital campus, which means timely, efficient access for patients and care teams and reduction of time and effort spent traveling through the hospital corridors. The 19 procedure rooms will align with industry best practices, providing adequate space to treat patients, ultimately improving the experience at MMC.

The investments in Maine Medical Center are supported in part by generous community philanthropy through The NEXT 150|The Campaign for Maine Medical Center, which nears its stretch goal of $170 million with the hope that more will be raised to support the necessary build-out. Visit https://next150.mmc.org/ for more information.

For more information and to receive regular updates on the MMC Modernization project’s progress, please visit www.mmc.org/modernization. 

About Maine Medical Center

Maine Medical Center (MMC), recognized as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News and World Report for 2022-2023, is a complete health care resource for the people of Greater Portland and the entire state, as well as northern New England. Incorporated in 1868, MMC is the state’s largest medical center, licensed for 700 beds and employing more than 9,600 people. MMC's unique role as both a community hospital and a referral center requires an unparalleled depth and breadth of services, including an active educational program and a world-class biomedical research center. As a nonprofit institution, Maine Medical Center provides nearly 23 percent of all the charity care delivered in Maine. MMC is part of the MaineHealth system, a growing family of health care services in northern New England. For more information, visit www.mmc.org.