Providence Health Care has released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the new St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

The RFQ is the first stage in the selection process and invites teams to express their interest in, and qualifications for, designing, building, and partially financing the new St. Paul’s.

Through the RFQ process, Providence will identify a shortlist of up to three teams that will be invited to participate in the next stage of the process – the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage. That stage will determine which team Providence will select to eventually lead the design and construction of the project.

The RFQ process is expected to be finalized, with the three teams selected,by fall. The subsequent RFP process will be initiated shortly after that and is expected to take up to one year to finalize, after which the construction stage can be initiated.

The new St. Paul’s will have capacity for up to 548 beds, which includes 115 net new beds. The site will be the home of several provincial programs and referral centers, as well as general and specialized care.