The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has entered into a new public-private partnership. Instead of moving forward with a plan developed in 2011 to build a $560 million facility, VA will instead be partnering with the Veterans Ambulatory Center Development Corporation (VACDC), a nonprofit based in Omaha, Neb., to construct an ambulatory care center (ACC) at the current Omaha VA Medical Center campus.

With the support of Congress through the Communities Helping Invest through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of 2016 (CHIP IN for Vets Act), VA will use $56 million of the original appropriated funds along with roughly $30 million in donations from VACDC, in order to complete the approximately $86 million project.

The Omaha VA’s future ambulatory care center is the first of five pilot projects nationwide that will be built under the new innovated donation authority concept authorized by the CHIP IN for Vets Act.