SCHENECTADY — The Schenectady Foundation announced Wednesday that it has awarded a $1 million grant, the largest in its history, to help Ellis Medicine build a 11⁄2 story, $15 million addition for women’s health care services on the former Bellevue Woman’s Hospital campus in Niskayuna.

Ellis calls the Niskayuna facility Bellevue Woman’s Center.

The proposed addition will contain a labor-delivery-recovery room and additional private beds for patients. Ellis also would consolidate imaging and other services on the second floor of the addition and add a cafe and other amenities.

When completed, the expanded Bellevue Woman’s Center will contain 36 patient rooms with 40 beds and have an expanded normal newborn nursery, neo-intensive care unit and redesigned lobby. The plan is to break ground in late 2010.

Robert Carreau, administrator of the Schenectady Foundation, said the grant supports the foundation’s new strategic plan to strengthen families.

“We want to provide Schenectady County families with the resources they need to raise healthy, resilient children who achieve success in school and in the community,” he said.

Other parts of the plan include supporting programs for child development, family counseling, education and neighborhood development.

Suzann Smart, director of the Ellis Medicine Foundation, said the gift is the largest received to date for the project and will help Ellis with its fundraising efforts, set to begin shortly.

Herbert L. Shultz Jr., vice chairman of the Schenectady Foundation, said helping Ellis’ project “is essential to the health and well-being of our community, especially mothers and infants. Ellis is a critical partner in our strategy to support the success of Schenectady’s families.”

Ellis took over Bellevue in 2007 when the state mandated that the latter close to save money. At the time, Ellis said it would maintain women’s health services at Bellevue until it could build a new tower on its Nott Street campus. This latest announcement means that Ellis is no longer considering the tower, which had an estimated price tag of $24 million.

Earlier this year, the foundation awarded $120,000 to Catholic Charities’ Healthy Schenectady Families, $180,000 to Parsons Child & Family Center and $100,000 to the Schenectady Free Clinic.

The foundation will commit more than $5.5 million to its “Strengthening Families” initiative over the next seven years, Carreau said.

Ellis also plans a new emergency department on its Nott Street campus and a satellite emergency department in southern Saratoga County as part of its evolution into a regional medical provider. It also is converting the former St. Clare’s Hospital into a medical home that will provide family and pediatric medicine, dental care, outpatient adolescent mental health, insurance enrollment assistance and other outpatient services.

The projects together represent a $78 million investment in health care systems for the area, Ellis officials said.