A six-story building at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center will be demolished to make way for a smaller structure to expand emergency room and surgical services, hospital system officials announced Wednesday.

The hospital complex on Cherry Street is about to undergo a nearly $34 million investment that will include construction of a two-story, 29,000-square-foot building, which will be built over the soon-to-be demolished d’Youville Education Center building.

Thomas Arquilla, president and CEO of Mercy’s Metro Toledo Division, said the new structure will house the hospital’s emergency room on the main floor, while surgical facilities for preoperative services and postoperative care will be on the second level.

The hospital’s investment in the new construction and renovation, he said, affirms the system’s commitment to have a presence in downtown Toledo and to continue medical care services for the neighborhood near the 47-acre campus and the Toledo community.

“We are not leaving. We are here to stay,” Mr. Arquilla told reporters at a news conference. “This new investment is the right thing to do for patient care and another example of Mercy’s commitment to Toledo and northwest Ohio.”

The d’Youville building opened in 1959 to house the hospital’s nursing school program. The college was discontinued in the 1990s. The credit union, Life Flight, and medical education had recently been located there.

“The use for this building was at its peak,” said Sarah Bednarski, a hospital spokesman. “We thought the best thing to do was to take this building down and rebuild.”

Demolition inside the d’Youville building is expected to be completed in the summer, the spokesman said.

Rudolph/​Libbe, general contractor for project, is expected to have construction of the new building completed in spring, 2018, she said.

The hospital system received approval last week from the Toledo Plan Commission to amend Mercy St. Vincent’s master plan for the project. The master plan changes will be reviewed by Toledo City Council’s planning and zoning committee April 13 and then will go before the full city council.

Master plan modifications included renovation and addition to the North Building, 2527 Cherry, for an outpatient dialysis facility, but that part of the project has been put on hold, Ms. Bednarski said.

“We don’t have firm plans to build out the former daycare building. The dialysis center may go there or we may end up using that building for another patient care service,” she said.

The emergency room expansion will improve the Trauma 1 center’s services for emergency pediatric care, allowing the operation to increase from 3 to 11 p.m. to 24-hour care.

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-724-6199.

First Published March 17, 2016, 4:00 a.m.