Staff photo / R. Michael Semple ... The Most Rev. David Bonnar, bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown, blesses the grounds of the Mercy Health-Champion Emergency Center during its groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday. At his left is Michael Grecol, director of Mercy Health Mission.

CHAMPION — Mercy Health officials said they are strengthening the region’s health care fabric with the 2026 winter opening of its newest facility.

The health care system hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for its Mercy Health-Champion Emergency Center and outpatient imaging center at 507 Educational Highway in front of the Trumbull Career & Technical Center.

This facility will offer 24/7 emergency care in addition to a full laboratory and phlebotomy services.

“With investments like this, we’re reinforcing our longstanding promise to care for this community with excellence, compassion and dignity,” said Char Gardiner, president of Mercy Health-St. Joseph Warren Hospital. “The construction of the Mercy Health Champion Emergency Center is about more than bricks and mortar. It’s about our neighbors. It’s about our care.

“Trumbull County is one of the largest counties in Ohio, and its health care needs are growing. We are proud to invest in Champion Township and bring essential emergency and outpatient services directly to this community.”

Construction of the one-story, 30,000-square-foot facility will cost $30 million, said senior project manager Tim Jones of Massaro Construction Group, Pittsburgh. Work on the site started last week.

“We will probably hire 30 some local subcontractors to work on the various trade aspects of the project,” he said.

On average, 20 to 120 workers will be on site per work day, Jones said.

“This is long overdue. It’s wonderful,” Trumbull County Commissioner Rick Hernandez said. “I hope that this is the beginning of what maybe we’ll see in a few years down the road is a full-scale hospital here. That would be, that would be wonderful … It looks like that’s the plan, but we start small and then grow great.”

Dr. John Luellen, state president of Ohio-Mercy Health, said the site allows for the health system to evolve, but did not commit to future endeavors there.

He said the emergency center will follow a similar model to its Austintown site.

“This is really us stepping away from that geography (in Warren) and offering a site that we feel is far enough away,” Luellen said. “It makes sense that we’re also positioning ourselves to serve new communities.”

He credited the Sisters of the Humility of Mary who started their health care ministry more than 110 years ago in the Valley. He said Mercy began discussions of an emergency department in Champion in 2016.

“When you think about the work that the sisters did prior to that, for decades, they identified the need to serve in this community and others,” Luellen said. “So this is a very interesting moment in time, and it’s actually very exciting as we look to develop how we serve the community over time and evolve how we serve.

“There’s a lot of exciting work happening across the Valley.”

Approximately 60 local and county officials, health care workers and community members attended Tuesday’s groundbreaking.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin praised the effort.

“It really is going to fill a gap that exists in our community; health care in general, but emergency, urgent care, in particular,” he said. “So you know, it’s a welcome addition to our medical services that our Valley can provide, particularly in Trumbull County.”

Bishop David Bonnar of the Diocese of Youngstown said the event affirmed “the good work of Mercy Health all throughout its system, in our diocese and beyond.

“And what I really am excited about here is that this is yet another opportunity for the church to be closer to her people and to smell the flock, so to speak and to be there and support them.”