SAGINAW, MI — Saginaw leaders continue to laud the progress of the community’s expanding “medical diamond,” a catch-all term referencing investments planned in the city’s health care-heavy district.
It’s a term that was mired in mystery only a few years ago, when economic developers began asking for millions of dollars in federal stimulus money from both City of Saginaw and Saginaw County officials while providing few details about the initiative publicly.
Back then, officials cited non-disclosure agreements with private developers in justifying their discretion.
But presentations in public settings and announcements from some of the region’s most prominent employers and educators in recent months have shed more light on the “medical diamond’s” plans and progress.
A Saginaw City Council special meeting recently provided a platform for representatives from four agencies in various stages of developing multimillion-dollar additions to the health care district, which largely encompasses neighborhoods surrounding both Covenant HealthCare on the East side of the Saginaw River and MyMichigan Health (formerly Ascension St. Mary’s of Saginaw), directly across the waterway.
Representatives from Great Lakes Bay Health Centers, the Saginaw County Health Department, Saginaw Valley State University and Central Michigan University were among the presenters at the strategy session.
Here are some key details they revealed, along with videos of each presentation:
Great Lakes Bay Health Centers
One of the earliest developments announced as part of the “medical diamond” project involved plans to create a behavioral health clinic in Saginaw.
In late 2022, both the Saginaw City Council and Saginaw County Board of Commissioners voted to invest $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stimulus funds apiece to the projected $15 million development, although county leaders later re-directed its share of the investment (the reason for that move was explained by county officials in a separate presentation).
Other elements of the behavioral health clinic initiative evolved in the last four years as well, officials revealed during the council strategy session.
Great Lakes Bay Health Centers, a Saginaw-based health care agency with locations across the region, took the lead in developing the behavioral health center concept, which now has an official name and illustrated renderings for the building planned in the downtown district.
Brenda Coughlin, president and CEO of the agency, said in her presentation to the city council the planned development — now known as Great Lakes Bay Health Centers Behavioral Health Center of Excellence — would be housed in a three-story, 15,000-square-foot facility.
Early maps for the development show it residing on real estate tucked between South Washington Avenue and South Water, north of Thompson Street, and south of the historic, eight-story Michigan Bell Building that now serves as a location for AT&T.
The center would be located within a proposed $35 million mixed-use real estate development owned by Shaheen Development, which purchased the real estate from the city in July 2025.
The acquisition of some of the parcels there — including property under the umbrella of the Saginaw County Land Bank — remains ongoing, Great Lakes Bay Health Centers officials said.
Plans for the behavioral health center include child and adolescent fellowship clinics, adult behavioral residency clinics, 30 exam rooms, primary care services, lab services, a pharmacy, and both occupational and physical therapy spaces, Coughlin told the council.
The center would provide training for students studying in health care fields from both SVSU and CMU, agency officials said.
“Our vision is to transform behavioral health care and access in Saginaw and our region,” Coughlin told the council.
While no projected opening date was announced, agency officials said they anticipated scheduling a groundbreaking ceremony in fall 2026.
Saginaw County Health Department
So, where did Saginaw County officials redirect the $5 million in ARPA funds initially intended to help bankroll the behavioral health clinic?
In their presentation to the city council, Saginaw County Administrator Mary Catherine Hannah and Saginaw County Health Officer Christina Harrington outlined plans to use those stimulus dollars instead to build a new facility for the Saginaw County Health Department on the West side of the river, with Covenant HealthCare as a key ally in the venture.
“I’ve been at the health department for 22 years, and I think, in that entire time, it’s been like, wow, we have an old, outdated building,” Harrington said of the department’s existing facility on South Michigan Avenue, across from Covenant HealthCare. “It’s very difficult to maintain, and it’s something that’s really not conducive to the needs of our community.”
Plans for a new health department building are tied to Covenant HealthCare plans to develop the site of a shuttered Rite Aid store into a primary and urgent care facility, on the corner of West Genesee and South Michigan avenues.
Kevin Albosta, vice president of finance for Covenant HealthCare, said the planned primary and urgent care facility is tied into the health care provider’s plans to expand its campus and beautify the hospital’s neighborhood, located less than one mile west of downtown Saginaw.
Albosta said the hospital continues to purchase and develop the property surrounding the ex-Rite Aid, with plans to pave the way for Saginaw County to build a new health department headquarters on the real estate.
“Our early estimates is it’s going to cost $8 (million) to $9 million to renovate the Rite Aid on that corner,” Albosta said. “We’re yet to have pricing on the health department building.”
He said the hospital’s and county’s new buildings “would either be connected or adjacent, so that patients can travel back and forth easily for services.”
Hannah said there are no settled plans yet for the existing health department in such a scenario.
“My guess is that it will come down,” she said. “There’s really not a good way to save that building. You would have to invest so much in it to get it back as a municipal asset.”
SVSU
Marcia Ditmyer, dean of the SVSU College of Health and Human Services, during her presentation to the city council outlined early plans to build a 50,000-square-foot, four-floor building to house programs largely for the school’s 400 graduate students in studies including nursing, social work and occupational therapy.
SVSU officials said the university hopes to partner with other agencies on elements of the outpost, including retail spaces.
“This could not be an SVSU project in the community, but rather, a project of the community and with the community,” Ditmyer said, “designed through shared leadership, mutual trust and a commitment to improving health outcomes while strengthening the region’s long-term economic vitality.”
The funding source for the development remains in the planning stages, said Noel Hornbacher, SVSU’s vice president for administration and business affairs. He said early cost estimates for the development were about $30 million.
There are no firm plans for where the building would reside, although Hornbacher said university officials hope to secure real estate along downtown’s riverside district. Such a development would place the building near a South Washington Avenue outpost operated by SVSU since 2022.
Hornbacher said, at this stage in the development plans, groundbreaking on the proposed site could happen no earlier than 2028.
Central Michigan University
CMU officials in November announced updates to the planned expansion of its existing medical college in Saginaw.
That’s when CMU officials announced the name of the planned expanded campus — Covenant HealthCare College of Medicine at Central Michigan University — along with two multimillion-dollar donations that led to the new title.
College officials last fall also announced plans to build the site in a different location than officials announced years earlier.
CMU officials originally identified the site for the planned building on what now is a vacant riverside lot neighboring the AT&T building, 309 S. Washington in downtown Saginaw.
But university officials said the expanded campus site instead will reside adjacent to MyMichigan Health, less than a half-mile down the street from CMU’s original planned site. The shift away from that original site allowed Great Lakes Bay Health Centers to instead plan to locate its behavioral health clinic on that piece of real estate, planners said.
The CMU medical college already operates facilities in Saginaw that provide education for about 125 students in the final two years of their studies as physicians. The planned expansion would create a hub large enough to allow first- and second-year students to study there too. Presently, those younger students begin their education in medicine at CMU’s Mount Pleasant facilities.
The expansion would mean about 400 CMU students would study in Saginaw, CMU officials have said.
Tina Thompson, interim dean of the CMU College of Medicine, told the city council the planned expansion would strengthen the talent pipeline for health care workers in Saginaw.
“Most statistics show, if you train in a given area, you are much more likely to choose to live in that area in the health care world,” she said. “So, this is a wonderful opportunity to capture that population of learners and then professionals.”
While there were renderings provided of an early proposal for the riverside campus, the project’s changes significantly cut the cost of the proposed investment, planners said. New proposed site renderings have not been shared publicly.