Support for NCH’s future heart center continues as a new $5 million donation has been made toward the project.
The James M. Schoonmaker II Foundation made the $5 million donation to the heart institute that will be built on the campus of the NCH Baker Hospital located at 350 Seventh St. N. The foundation is private and based in Chicago.
Groundbreaking is planned for February 2025. The Telford Education Center that sits south of the hospital will be torn down for the cardiac building.
To date, the nonprofit NCH has raised $155 million toward the project with a revised cost estimate of $265 million. That is up from $150 million to $200 million when the project was initially seeking approvals with Naples leaders two years ago.
The single largest gift of $20 million came from the Rooney Foundation, the philanthropic arm of former U.S. Representative Francis Rooney for Florida’s 19th congressional district and his wife, Kathleen Rooney . The cardiac program will be renamed the Rooney Heart Institute.