FORT RILEY, Kan. (WIBW) -- Friday afternoon the Fort Riley Community gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of its new hospital.

The event was held inside to avoid the rain. Military personnel and representatives from the Kansas City Army Corp of Engineers came together to mark the event.

The new facility will replace the current Irwin Army Community Hospital, and will bear the same name.

The project is budgeted to cost $404 million, and will have 550,000 square feet of space.

Irwin Army Community Hospital Commander, Colonel Jeffrey Johnson, says the Fort Riley community will benefit from the new hospital.

"We've had a great ride with that building for the last 60 plus years, but really it's time for an overhaul."

Johnson said the new hospital will incorporate what new medical concepts and technology look like.

Irwin Army Community Hospital Facility Manager, Jon Cranmer, said the new facility will have an impact not only in central Kansas, but to all army hospitals.

"It'll be something for the other installations to look at and for them to emulate. [It's] another stepping stone for Army medicine," he said.

Construction on the building will begin in November. The new Irwin Army Community Hospital will sit on the Sacco Ball Fields, just a half mile from the current building.

Col. Johnson said they expect the hospital to be finished in 2013.