SIOUX CENTER, Iowa -- Sioux Center Hospital and Health Center Avera has bought 40 acres of land on which to build a new hospital and outpatient clinic.

Hospital Administrator Kayleen Lee announced the land deal and credited Sioux Center Land Development for its role in helping to find the site. The purchase price was $827,000.

The site is just east of the city's water treatment plant, at Sioux County Road B-40 (Ninth Street) and 13th Avenue. Lee said the site was chosen for its accessibility and available land. It is just a few blocks from U.S. Highway 75 and all roads leading to it are primary roads, which are vital for emergency vehicles.

Lee said the hospital's other outpatient clinics, such as the one for cardiac care, could become part of the new health center as well. "We would, in our planning process, evaluate if it makes sense for those clinics to be relocated to the campus," she said.

Nothing specific has been decided yet Lee said, and the board will work to involve the community, physicians and employees in the planning process.

Lee said the land purchase is the result of several years of discussions, and the beginning of a long process toward assessing needs and how to use evidence-based designs to make the new hospital the safest, most healing place possible. She said the privately owned community hospital's board members are currently evaluating proposals to choose a firm to guide them through that process.

City Manager Paul Clousing said in a news release Wednesday that the new hospital site makes good sense for the community because the city is expanding to the east.

Mayor Dennis Walstra touted the economic benefits of having a new hospital, including its role in attracting new businesses, new families and retirees to the community. The facility will also directly retain more than 400 jobs and $14 million in direct worker income along with $6 million in related taxable retail sales revenue, Walstra said.

The city's existing hospital was built in 1951, primarily as an inpatient facility, and was renovated in 1983. The outpatient medical clinic was added in 1989.