If you’ve driven Highway 36 near Manning Avenue lately, you’ve probably noticed that this part of the St. Croix Valley is changing.
One of the biggest changes is already underway.
HealthPartners is building a new Lakeview Hospital and specialty-care campus near Highway 36 and Manning Avenue in Stillwater. The approximately 400,000-square-foot campus is expected to open in early 2028.
And while the address is technically Stillwater, the impact could stretch well beyond the city limits into Grant, Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Oak Park Heights, and western Wisconsin.
The interesting question isn’t just what happens inside the hospital.
It’s what happens around it.
More Than Just a Replacement Hospital
This isn’t simply Lakeview moving from one building to another.
Plans call for expanded emergency and critical care, a family birth center, heart and cancer specialty centers, orthopedic services, urgent care, and additional specialty services.
The new facility will be roughly twice the size of the existing hospital.
HealthPartners says the project is designed to meet growing healthcare needs across the St. Croix Valley, including an aging population.
For residents, that could mean improved access to specialized medical care without traveling farther into the Twin Cities.
But a project this large also raises questions about employment, housing, development, and traffic.
What Could It Mean for Jobs?
A larger medical campus requires more than doctors and nurses.
Hospitals support jobs in imaging, laboratories, administration, food service, maintenance, information technology, security, and specialized medical practices.
There are also temporary construction jobs involved in creating a project of this scale.
What we don’t know yet is exactly how many net new permanent jobs the completed campus will create versus how many existing Lakeview positions will simply relocate.
That distinction matters.
Still, concentrating a major healthcare employer along Highway 36 changes the employment landscape of the area.
For someone living in Grant, Lake Elmo, Stillwater, Mahtomedi, or western Wisconsin, a medical campus at Manning Avenue may become a convenient alternative to commuting farther into the Twin Cities.
Could the Hospital Affect the Housing Market?
Possibly, but probably not in the simplistic way people sometimes imagine.
A new hospital doesn’t automatically mean every house nearby becomes more valuable.
Housing prices depend on interest rates, available inventory, schools, taxes, property condition, location, and the broader economy.
But major employment centers can influence where people prefer to live.
A physician, nurse, technician, or administrator working at the new campus might consider homes in Stillwater, Grant, Lake Elmo, Mahtomedi, Bayport, Oak Park Heights, Hudson, or other nearby communities.
That could create another source of housing demand over time.
The effect may be particularly interesting in communities offering a short commute while maintaining the quieter, rural, or water-oriented lifestyle many people associate with the eastern Twin Cities.
Manning Avenue Is Becoming a Development Corridor
The hospital isn’t happening by itself.
The surrounding area is experiencing additional residential and commercial development as Stillwater continues expanding westward.
Planned mixed-use projects near Manning Avenue and Highway 36 could bring additional housing, shopping, and services to the corridor.
For decades, people have thought of downtown Stillwater and the St. Croix River as the center of activity.
Increasingly, Manning Avenue is becoming another important regional hub.
That brings opportunities for local businesses and residents, but also questions about how quickly the area should grow.
And Then There’s Highway 36
This may be the change residents notice first.
The hospital will sit beside one of the major east-west transportation corridors connecting the St. Croix Valley with the Twin Cities.
The site was chosen partly for its accessibility from Highway 36, Manning Avenue, and Stillwater Boulevard.
A project of this size will generate vehicle trips from employees, patients, visitors, and service providers.
The campus plans include substantial parking and road improvements intended to accommodate that activity.
But additional development throughout the corridor could also affect traffic patterns.
For nearby residents, two things can be true at once:
Better regional access can make the area more convenient.
And more development can mean more traffic.
How those competing factors play out will be worth watching as the hospital approaches its anticipated 2028 opening.
What it means for the neighborhoods
For the neighborhoods in this corner, the hospital building is only part of the story. It's the catalyst that has set roads, signals, and plans in motion across the point where Stillwater, Grant, and Lake Elmo meet. Here's what's happening on the ground, most of it approved or underway long before the first patient arrives.
Where the campus sits
The new campus sits on the northeast quadrant of the Highway 36 and Manning Avenue interchange, at the point where the City of Stillwater, the City of Lake Elmo, and Grant come together. Washington County has described the Highway 36/Manning interchange as sitting at the intersection of Stillwater, Lake Elmo, and Grant, and the county signed the traffic-signal agreement for that corner with both Stillwater and Grant.
The site itself is roughly 64 acres, about three miles west of the current Lakeview hospital on Churchill Street. Because it sits at that meeting point, most of the roadwork around it involves more than one jurisdiction, which is worth remembering when you see construction notices with different city names on them.
A signal, a roundabout, and a missing link in the road system
If you've driven Manning Avenue north of Highway 36 recently, you've probably noticed the temporary traffic signal that went up at Manning Avenue and 62nd Street in May 2025 to handle construction traffic. That corner is staying connected: Washington County has approved a permanent traffic signal project at Manning Avenue and 62nd Street with the City of Stillwater and Grant.
In November 2025, Washington County approved the construction contract for the 58th Street Extension, a new segment of County Highway 15 (Manning Avenue/Stillwater Boulevard) running from the Highway 36 interchange to Stillwater Boulevard. It completes a long-sought gap in the County Road 15 system south of Highway 36, and it's designed to do something residents will notice: reduce dependence on Highway 36 for local trips.
Closer to the campus, crews are building a roundabout at 62nd Street and Manning Avenue and connecting it to Curve Crest Boulevard, which is being extended around the south and west sides of the hospital site to provide access into the campus. During the work, 62nd Street has been closed between Manning and Timber Way.
A fuller interchange at Highway 36
None of this is landing on an empty corner. The Highway 36/Manning interchange was rebuilt as a full interchange in the early 2020s, making Manning a primary gateway between Highway 36 and the communities south of it. Traffic entering and leaving Highway 36 at Manning will grow as the hospital and the surrounding areas develop.
A quick sense of scale: the new campus is roughly 400,000 square feet across six stories, about double the size of the current hospital, and it's set to open early 2028. When it does, it will bring more patients, staff, and visitors to the area every day. A status check from fall 2026: HealthPartners' most recent construction update put the campus roughly 23% complete, with structural work in its final phase and exterior progress under way, and the early 2028 opening still stands, with about 77 beds planned at opening.
What it could mean
Connecting those facts to daily life is where the practical questions start. Morning and evening traffic on the Highway 36 corridor is already part of the rhythm here, and trips in and out of Manning will add to it. The local streets will feel it too: school-zone and neighborhood traffic on 62nd and Curve Crest sits right at the edge of the campus, and the roundabout and Curve Crest extension are being built to carry that load. Once the 58th Street extension is complete, north-south travel gets a better connection around the interchange, which should take some of the pressure off Highway 36 for local trips.
Housing demand is the other big question, and there's already a signal on the table. The southeast quadrant of Manning and Highway 36 is the site of the planned Central Commons mixed-use project, a 35-acre planned-unit development proposed in phases. The county and city have described the area as one of the projects bringing big changes to the region. When a new road network and a major employer arrive together, development pressure usually follows; how much of it does, and how quickly, is a separate question from what's already been approved.
So here's the honest split. Already approved, under construction, or formally proposed: the hospital campus, the permanent signal at Manning and 62nd, the 58th Street extension, the Curve Crest extension and roundabout, and the Central Commons proposal on the southeast quadrant. Open questions: how much additional development ultimately follows, what the exact traffic increases look like, and how the character of the corridor shifts once the heavy equipment moves on.
How the corridor actually feels in 2028 is harder to predict, but the ingredients are already visible: more cars, more hospital-related activity, and new connections between Stillwater, Grant, and Lake Elmo that didn't exist a few years ago.
Whether you live here or you're thinking of moving here, the point is that this corner is changing now, and what happens around Manning Avenue and Highway 36 will shape traffic, commuting, and the feel of the area by 2028. How that lands, whether it feels like opportunity or growing pains, is still an open question. The change itself is not.
What About Grant?
Grant may be one of the more interesting communities in this corner to watch.
The city sits immediately north of Highway 36 and has deliberately maintained a much more rural character than neighboring Stillwater and Lake Elmo.
Large lots, open land, and lower-density development are a major part of Grant’s identity.
Now a major regional hospital and an expanding commercial corridor are developing just minutes away.
That gives Grant residents something unusual: proximity to a growing employment and healthcare center without necessarily living inside the development itself.
Whether that increases demand for homes in Grant or creates additional pressure for growth and traffic remains to be seen.
What About Mahtomedi and Lake Elmo?
These communities may experience the changes differently.
Lake Elmo is already experiencing significant growth, new housing, and infrastructure expansion.
Mahtomedi is more established and has much less vacant land available for large-scale development.
For residents of both cities, the new hospital could primarily mean easier access to specialized medical care and another major employment center within a relatively short drive.
For people considering moving to this part of Minnesota, healthcare access may become another factor in deciding where to live.
A Bigger St. Croix Valley
Maybe the most interesting thing about the new hospital isn’t the building itself.
It’s what the project says about the region.
HealthPartners is making a substantial investment in the future of the eastern Twin Cities and western Wisconsin.
The communities surrounding Highway 36 are gradually becoming something different.
Still close to lakes, rivers, trails, and open land.
But increasingly connected to jobs, healthcare, shopping, and services that once required driving farther into the metro.
For people who already live here, that growth brings legitimate questions about traffic and development.
For people thinking about moving here, it changes the equation in another way.
You may not have to choose between living near the water and living near everything else.
Twin Cities East Metro explores what it’s like to live near the water in Mahtomedi, White Bear Lake, Stillwater, Hudson, and the surrounding St. Croix Valley. From local developments to neighborhood stories, we cover the changes shaping the communities we call home.
Sources and further reading
HealthPartners — Lakeview Hospital expansion:
https://www.healthpartners.com/care/hospitals/lakeview/about/expansion/
HealthPartners — Lakeview Hospital construction updates:
https://www.healthpartners.com/care/hospitals/lakeview/about/expansion/construction-updates/