(BIVN) – State and County officials and healthcare professionals joined entrepreneur and philanthropist Marc Benioff in celebration of the Hilo Benioff Medical Center expansion project.

In March, Marc and Lynne Benioff donated $50 million to Hilo Medical Center, as part of a $150 million gift that included $100 million for Hawaii Pacific Health in order to help create a “healthcare campus of the future” at the Straub Medical Center on Oʻahu. 

The donation to the Hilo Medical Center will help “build out critical areas of care”, a previous news release stated, including “a state-of-the-art family birthing center, intensive care unit, and neurosurgical program as well as behavioral health services.” The contribution also led to the renaming of the Hilo Medical Center to the Hilo Benioff Medical Center.

(left to right) Governor Josh Green, Marc Benioff, and Mayor Mitch Roth. Photo courtesy State of Hawaiʻi, Office of the Governor

Governor Josh Green, who was in Hilo for Wednesday’s event, said on social media that the hospital “desperately needed these beds to care for the growing community”. 

Green said the Hilo Benioff Medical Center expansion will include a new 19-bed Intensive Care Unit and 36 additional hospital beds. “This project will help alleviate Hawai‘i Island’s and the state’s hospital bed shortage and has been made possible through a combination of public-and private funding,” Green said. 

Hawaiʻi County Mayor Mitch Roth was also in attendance. “This investment is a game-changer for our community and we could not be more grateful,” Roth posted on Facebook. “Mahalo to the Benioffs for their aloha spirit and commitment to our island’s health.”

Photo courtesy State of Hawaiʻi, Office of the Governor

Officials say the $50 million from the Benioffs matches a previous, separate $50 million appropriation from the State of Hawaiʻi.