Mayo Clinic Announces Name of New Rochester Clinical Building

Rochester, MN (KROC-Am News) - A new clinical building at the center of the $5 billion Mayo Clinic expansion in downtown Rochester now has a name.

Mayo Clinic today announced that it has received a "transformational gift" and will be naming the new building in honor of the benefactors, Edith Waterman and her late husband, Bernard Waterman of Fort Myers, Florida. The new clinical building is slated to be built just west of the Gonda Building on the current Damon Parking Ramp site as part of the Bold. Forward. Unbound initiative announced late last year.

READ MORE: Mayo Clinic Unveils $5 Billion Expansion Plan

“Bernard and Edith Waterman have been tremendous friends of Mayo Clinic for decades and were among the earliest advocates for our strategy to transform healthcare," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic's president and CEO. “Their visionary support cannot be overstated — Edith and Bernie will be part of an enduring legacy as Mayo Clinic forges a new future for healthcare.”

The size of the gift from the Watermans has not been disclosed.

Mayo Clinic says the Waterman building will initially have nine stories above ground with the ability for future upward expansion. It will be linked to the Gonda and a second clinical building planned for the current Ozmun Building site.

A news release says the Watermans have been Mayo Clinic patients for more than three decades. It also states that they "have generously supported capital expansion, individualized medicine and cancer genetics research." The news release goes on to say Bernard and Edith Waterman met during World War II while he was in the U.S. Navy. The couple founded Waterman Broadcasting headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida in 1956.

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