Naming rights for rooms going fast

A further 24 areas and rooms in the David Kampe tower have also been sold for $50,000 to $1 million

Opening day is still 18 months away, but patient rooms at the new Penticton Regional Hospital tower are going fast – the naming rights to them, that is.

As of Thursday, 62 of 84 patient rooms had been snapped up by donors who plunked down $30,000 each for the right to name the spaces, according to Carey Bornn, executive director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

“Those rooms are disappearing. When I started 13 months ago, we were at 47,” he told the board of the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District.

Naming rights for another 24 areas and rooms in the tower have also been sold at prices ranging from $50,000 to $1 million.

And the tower itself has been named after local businessman David Kampe, who made three separate donations totalling $6.4 million.

Selling naming rights is among the methods the foundation is using to raise $20 million to purchase equipment for the new tower, which is slated to open on April 29, 2019.

Potential names all have to be approved by the B.C. government, but Bornn said the province hasn’t rejected a proposal — yet.

“Just wondering about our name approval: ‘The Penticton Room — A place to stay forever,’” quipped Mayor Andrew Jakubeit. “Did that ever get approved?”

Jakubeit explained afterwards the city is still deciding on a name for its room, the right to which it earned by donating proceeds from the sale of paving stones that were made surplus during downtown revitalization.

Bornn said the total already pledged or donated to the tower campaign stands at $14.3 million.

“Yes, we’re on track,” he added, “but that last $2 million is going to be the hardest.”

When it’s done, the $312.5-million, sixstorey tower will feature the 84 single-bed patient rooms, outpatient clinics, five operating theatres, space for a medical school and a rooftop helipad.

It will be attached to a five-storey, 480-stall parkade, construction of which is expected to begin next month.