Shakopee adopts revenue bonds to fund Saint Francis emergency department expansion

The Shakopee City Council on Nov. 5 adopted Resolution R2025-125 authorizing the issuance of conduit revenue bonds for the benefit of Saint Francis Regional Medical Center to refund prior bonds and fund an emergency department renovation and expansion.

City staff told the council the bonds would be conduit debt, meaning "the city has no liability to pay out the bonds or financial impact on the city of Shakopee," and that the city would receive a fee as part of the transaction. The public hearing proceeded with Saint Francis executives and the issuer's bond counsel in attendance.

"This bond financing is to support an emergency department renovation and expansion project and the refunding of series 2014 bonds as well as other capital needs," said Amy Jourty, president and chief executive officer of Saint Francis Regional Medical Center. Jourty described phase 1 — six mental-health safe rooms opened in 2022 — as already in service and said the new work focuses on ED capacity and flow.

Saint Francis said the expansion will add seven clinical exam rooms, increasing exam-room capacity from 27 to 34; revise triage and create a fast-track area; and add a four-bay drive-through ambulance garage to reduce ambulance backup. The project includes new isolation rooms, equipment storage and staff support space. Saint Francis described the work as roughly 8,500 square feet of new construction within a larger 25,400-square-foot phase and listed a project budget of $36,200,000. Groundbreaking occurred in March 2025; the transcript lists a target phased completion date of Jan. 1, 2027.

Angela Gutzmer, identified in the meeting as Saint Francis’ finance director, summarized financing participants named in the presentation: the borrower as Saint Francis, corporate counsel Dorsey & Whitney, bond counsel Kutak Rock, JPMorgan Chase Bank as purchaser and Kaufman Hall as financial advisor.

After asking for public comment and receiving none, a councilor moved to adopt the resolution and a second was voiced. The council then voted to adopt R2025-125. The motion carried after an affirmative voice vote was recorded in the meeting minutes; the transcript does not list individual roll-call votes.

Why it matters: Saint Francis said the renovation is intended to address recurring space constraints in the emergency department and anticipated demand from an aging population, including added capacity for mental-health patients. The bond transaction will also refund bonds the hospital issued in 2014, according to the presentation.

What the city said: City staff emphasized the conduit nature of the bonds and that the city will not be responsible for repayment. The transcript also records councilors thanking Saint Francis for the mental-health rooms opened in phase 1 and for investing in facility upgrades serving the region.

A note on the record: the transcript contains a small number of inconsistent spellings and a date transcription error; project and participant names in this article are taken from the presenters’ self-identifications during the hearing (Amy Jourty; Angela Gutzmer; bond counsel Julie Eddington of Kutak Rock).