Kiewit and Veolia collaborate with Henry Ford Health on Central Energy Hub

Kiewit and Veolia Collaborate with Henry Ford Health to design, build, finance, operate and maintain innovative turnkey Central Energy Hub.

Henry Ford Health Energy Partners, a team including Kiewit and Veolia, has announced its partnership with Henry Ford Health, one of the nation’s premier academic and integrated health systems, to develop and operate their new Central Energy Hub as part of the Destination: Grand project, a major and transformational expansion of its century-old hospital campus in Detroit.

The Central Energy Hub, a key component of the expansion, will provide heating and cooling via a hot and cold-water system that will tie into the new hospital facilities. The facility’s design incorporates advanced technologies such as electrification, waste heat recovery and digital energy management. The plant supports Henry Ford Health’s goal of achieving net zero by 2050.

The Henry Ford Health Energy Partners team, led by Kiewit Development Company with Kiewit Power Constructors Co. and with Veolia Energy Operating Services, LLC, providing the design-build and operations respectively, is proud to be part of this project.

Sam Chai, president at Kiewit Development Company, said, “We are very excited to be partnering with Henry Ford Health to help them deliver on their overall hospital campus expansion plans to better serve the people of Detroit. With project financing that includes tax-exempt green bonds, our team worked tirelessly to provide a cost-effective solution for Henry Ford Health that also reflects the project’s important emphasis on sustainability.”

To facilitate the tax-exempt green bond issuance, Kiewit Development Company teamed up with Provident Resources Group Inc., a leading national 501(c)(3) organization and manager of projects in various sectors including healthcare, education, workforce housing, hospitality, governmental, and essential services.

Veolia, a global leader in environmental services, will provide operations management, preventative and lifecycle maintenance over a 30-year term. Patrick Schultz, CEO of Sustainable Industries and Buildings for Veolia North America, said, “As part of our GreenUp strategy, Veolia is excited to lead operations at the planned Central Energy Hub and help advance the sustainable development goals of Henry Ford Health through this innovative project in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood. By employing advanced digital monitoring, predictive and lifecycle maintenance, and engaging facility stakeholders in ongoing improvement projects, we plan to set the standard for sustainable healthcare operations.”

The Energy Partners team is committed to engaging and including minority and women-owned subcontractors as well as those that are based in Detroit. Construction on the Central Energy Hub is expected to begin in late 2024.

About Kiewit

Kiewit is one of North America’s largest and most respected construction and engineering organizations. With its roots dating back to 1884, the employee-owned organization operates in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Kiewit offers construction and engineering services in a variety of markets including transportation; oil, gas and chemical; power; building; water; industrial; mining and marine. Kiewit had 2023 revenues of $17.1 billion and employs 31,100 staff and craft employees.

About Veolia

Veolia group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 218,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. In 2023, the Veolia group provided 113 million inhabitants with drinking water and 103 million with sanitation, produced 42 million megawatt hours of energy, and treated 63 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of €45.35 billion in 2023. A subsidiary of Veolia group, Veolia North America (VNA) offers a full spectrum of water, waste and energy management services, including water and wastewater treatment, commercial and hazardous waste collection and disposal, energy consulting and resource recovery. VNA helps commercial, industrial, healthcare, higher education and municipality customers throughout North America. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Veolia North America has more than 10,000 employees working at more than 350 locations across the continent.