SPRINGDALE — The Schmieding Foundation has given $1 million to the Arkansas Children’s Northwest hospital, the hospital foundation said Tuesday.
The facility’s occupational and physical therapy gym will bear the late philanthropist Lawrence Schmieding’s name, according to a news release from the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation. The produce broker donated millions of dollars to help start Springdale’s Schmieding Children’s Center and the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education before his death at age 89 in 2009.
The 230,000-square-foot facility is set to open near Arvest Ballpark and Interstate 49 in January 2018, bringing 24 inpatient beds, an emergency department and several operating rooms and clinics for Northwest Arkansas’ roughly 200,000 children. The hospital will complement the more intensive care available at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, officials have said.
The hospital is expected to cost about $167 million to build and several hundred million dollars more to run for the first several years, and millions of dollars in donations have poured in for more than a year toward the effort. The Schmieding gift is on top of $53 million in other donations that were previously announced.