Leone & Keeble Inc. and Walker Construction Inc., both of Spokane, have formed a joint venture to take on an $8.2 million building project that will nearly double the size of North Valley Hospital, in Tonasket, Wash., hospital administrator Warner Bartleson says.

The entity, WLK Joint Venture, has sought bids from potential subcontractors for the project, but neither Leone & Keeble nor Walker could be reached for information about who won those sub-contract bids.

North Valley Hospital is a 25-bed critical-access hospital owned by the Okanogan County Public Hospital District. Tonasket is located about 164 miles northwest of Spokane.

The two-story brick building has 20,000 square feet of floor space, and was built in the early 1950s, Bartleson says.

The project involves constructing a one-story brick addition onto the front of the building, adding about 36,000 square feet of floor space, including the space in a full basement, he says.

"We need the capacity," he says, adding that demand for the hospital's services has been growing.

The addition has been designed so it will be able to accommodate an additional story, if needed, Bartleson says.

KDF Architecture Inc., which is based in Yakima and has an office in Spokane, designed the project.

Site work already has started, Bartleson says. Construction should be finished by summer 2010, he says.

A small amount of remodeling will be done on the first floor of the older part of the hospital as part of the current project.

In 2007, patrons authorized the district to issue $11 million in bonds to pay for the addition and updates.

The addition will have 11 inpatient rooms, three labor and delivery and post partum rooms, an expanded emergency department, and some radiology space, he says.

Later, two surgical suites will be constructed in about 10,000 square feet of the 18,000 square feet of space in the basement, he says. Completing those suites will be the second phase of the project, but the district will need to raise another $5 million to complete that work, he says. The third phase of the project will be a remodel of the longtime hospital building.