We are always studying the costs of various project types that we design so that we can leverage historical construction cost data against future project budgets. This post focuses on a project type we are highly experienced with: Nursing Homes, or also commonly known as Long Term Care Homes. Our source for this data is RSMeans, the leader in construction cost data.
The construction cost chart illustrates that the most expensive city to build is New York, with the Southern Cities having lower costs per square foot. The Median cost per square foot for Nursing homes falls around $160 per square foot.
These costs are indexes based on averages across a wide variety of projects with various programs. Long Term Care facilities have a wide range of programs and functions that can drive costs. For example, therapy gyms, swimming pools, spas and various other high tech amenities for residents available in higher end facilities can push the costs per square foot higher.
EVstudio has extensive experience with these kinds of projects and the cost impacts of various aspects of the program. We would be happy to discuss your project with you and help to outline your specific program and how it informs your project budget.
5 thoughts on “Construction Costs per Square Foot for Nursing Homes by Region”
Hi Robert, Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, the data from RSmeans compiles all of the buildings of that type and does not differentiate between client type. However, from direct experience working on both government projects as well as private sector projects, I would estimate an approximate 10% to 20% increase in cost for a government project over a private sector project of the same type. This is largely due to government requirements with construction labor wages to meet Davis-Bacon requirements as well as substantially higher administrative requirements to design and construct these projects. I hope that helps!
I’m in the Seattle market. Do you have anything that differentiates between the cost of nursing homes developed in the private sector vs. nursing homes developed in the public sector by state agencies?
Here’s a great question I recently received by email:
Hello,
i am seeking benchmark cost/SF for new nursing home construction. I found this old article by y’all on the web. have you done any updating?
Happy to help if I can. The data from that article was from 2011, and certainly should not be relied upon for any cost estimating today. While I do not have any recent updates to that data, we typically will index older data against construction inflation over the number of years since the report. Local construction inflation data should be available online, but for example, if we were to use the US standard inflation index of 3%, then construction cost per square foot for this project type in Baltimore would be $148.62*1.03^7, or $182.78 per square foot. This would be about a 23% increase, and that’s actually about right for a lot of areas. Note though that construction cost inflation can be sharply higher or lower depending on local labor. Material inflation isn’t typically that variable from location to location.
I hope that helps!
Happy to help Clarence. We have experts with that type of project and an affiliate there in California not far from Rialto. Please email us at design@evstudio.com with your site information and big picture program objectives (number of beds, amenities, etc.) and we can prepare an A/E design scope for you and go from there. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you and learning more about your project!
Interested in building skilled nursing home in Rialto, CA to care for patients ready for discharge from hospital but still in need of skilled care that cannot be received at home. Please contact me for more details as you may require to be of assistance.