Munson breaks ground on expanded NICU in Grand Traverse County

Munson Healthcare broke ground Thursday on a new neonatal intensive care unit in Grand Traverse County, a 22,000-square-foot facility the hospital says will expand critical newborn care for families across northern Michigan and relieve a unit that has long outgrown its space.

The new NICU will hold about 24 babies, nearly doubling the practical capacity of the current setup, where Munson said the unit was built for about 12 infants but often had to care for 18 or more. When the beds filled up, some babies were moved to the pediatric floor or to an overflow area outside the NICU, a workaround that kept care going but split families and specialists across different spaces.

Munson Medical Center says it is the only NICU north of Grand Rapids and one of 17 in Michigan, making the Traverse City unit a regional referral point rather than just a local service. In its current Family Birth Center, Munson houses a 19-bed maternity unit and the 22-bed NICU that now serves the region’s most fragile newborns. Planning materials from the hospital said the NICU cared for more than 300 critically ill infants in the last year cited, while the maternity department delivered more than 1,700 babies.

Hospital leaders say the new building is meant to support a family-integrated care model, with private rooms, more space for parents and caregivers, a family lounge, infant feeding labs, a stabilization area for mothers and babies, and a dedicated ambulance bay. The facility will be connected to Munson Medical Center and sit between the hospital and Cowell Family Cancer Center, keeping neonatal care tied directly to the rest of the health system.

Munson has framed the project as part of a $40 million investment in women’s and children’s services. Nearly a quarter of the project is donor-funded, totaling $8.9 million. The hospital says construction should take about 18 months, with opening targeted for late 2027.

The project grew out of a broader Family Birth and Children’s Center plan first proposed before the COVID-19 pandemic, then redesigned as birth rates declined and economic and regulatory conditions changed. For Grand Traverse County, the groundbreaking marks a concrete step toward adding capacity in a service area that reaches far beyond Traverse City, where the nearest comparable neonatal care is still miles away.