Mayo's Gonda expansion 'paused indefinitely'

Plans for an 11-floor addition to the Gonda Building in downtown Rochester have been paused indefinitely, Mayo Clinic announced Monday.

The proposed expansion, first introduced in 2018 in partnership with Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group, was slated to include four floors of clinical space and a seven-story hotel. Mayo stated then it planned to invest at least $190 million in the addition, which would have made the Gonda Building the tallest structure in Minnesota outside of Minneapolis.

In a statement, Mayo said the project had been halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Several other Mayo construction projects have also been put on the back burner as the institution continues to recover from the economic setbacks caused by this spring’s lockdown.

Initial plans called for construction of the Gonda expansion to begin by the end of 2019 or early 2020, with work concluding by the end of 2022.

“Mayo Clinic will continue to seek partners to expand the Gonda Building or other viable alternatives,” a spokesperson said Monday. The statement also left open the possibility of other future “facility expansion opportunities with Pontiac Land Group.”

The suspension of the Gonda expansion marks the second time in as many years that a high-profile development has come to a standstill in the midst of the Destination Medical Center initiative. The previous proposal, a $230 million project along the Zumbro River, was scrapped after the developer, Bloom International Realty, said it was “blindsided,” ironically, by Mayo’s announcement of its partnership with Pontiac Land Group.

Cover: Rendering of the proposed Gonda expansion