The Billion Dollar Club: 2018’s Most Expensive Healthcare Development Projects

In 2018, 12 hospitals and health systems announced or unveiled facility expansions and renovations with price tags of $1 billion or more.

1. Sutter Health’s $2.1B Campus Opening Ahead of Schedule

Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health plans to open its $2.1-billion hospital campus this March, a few months ahead of schedule. The campus, which will be in San Francisco, features a one-million-square-foot, 11-story building and occupies an entire block. The building has earthquake-proof technology, called viscous wall dampers, which act as shock absorbers if the building starts shaking.

2. Georgia’s $1.5B Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta hospital

Georgia approved Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s certificate of need (CON) application to replace the 325-bed children’s hospital in Atlanta with a larger one containing 446 beds, also in Atlanta. The $1.5 billion project is the largest in the state’s CON program history. The organization plans to start construction in 2020. The proposal includes an advanced pediatrics center, support buildings, over 20 acres of green space, walking trails, a central energy plant, parking decks and funding for nearby road improvements.

3. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Plans $2B Expansion

The Pittsburgh-based health system announced plans to construct three specialty hospitals in the city as part of its $2 billion expansion. The hospitals are UPMC Heart and Transplant Hospital, UPMC Hillman Cancer Hospital and UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital. Construction on the vision and rehabilitation hospital, which will feature four stories of surgical and clinical facilities and five stories of academic research, is expected to begin in 2019 and last roughly 36 months.

4. JPS Health Network Investing $1.2 Billion in Hospital Upgrades

Fort Worth, Texas-based Tarrant County Hospital District, which operates JPS Health Network, was awarded an $800 million bond to fund more than $1.2 billion in hospital upgrades. The system plans to construct a $204 million psychiatric hospital, an improved patient tower with 676 beds, a cancer care center, four regional health centers and an ambulatory surgical center.

5. $1.7B Colorado VA Hospital Opens Doors After Five-Year Delay

The Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center opened in mid-2018 after a five-year delay. Located in Aurora, CO, the $1.7 billion, 1.2-million-square-foot medical facility replaced an aging VA hospital on a 31-acre campus. It was $1 billion over budget and features 182 inpatient beds, ambulatory care clinics, research laboratories, critical care units, traumatic brain injury units, and a 30-bed spinal cord injury clinic.

6. Atrium Health Invests $1B on Capital Projects

Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health plans to spend more than $1 billion to upgrade and expand several facilities in its network, representing the largest capital investment in the health system’s history. The initiative will include investments in technology and new facilities to reposition the system for the next 50 years. The projects, which include a multistory building at its flagship campus that will offer specialty care such as heart and vascular procedures and neurological services, would take place over a seven-year period.

7. Banner Health Launches $1.7B Construction Program

Phoenix-based Banner Health has 386 active construction projects across its markets, totaling $1.7 billion. Although the system operates in six states, the majority of its active projects are in Arizona at hospitals in Phoenix and Tucson. The system also is considering investments in several Colorado markets.

8. New York-Presbyterian Unveils $1.1B Ambulatory Care Center

New York City-based New York-Presbyterian completed its David H. Koch Center in April 2018, a $1.1 billion ambulatory care facility in Manhattan that houses a women and children’s hospital. The 740,000-square-foot facility is located on the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center Campus in Manhattan, the most populous borough of New York City. The center was named after David Koch, a New York-Presbyterian board member, who provided $100 million toward construction of the new outpatient center.

9. Texas Medical Center Reveals Plan for 30-Acre Medical Research Campus

Houston-based Texas Medical Center (pictured above) has plans to develop a medical research campus that brings together five of the state’s powerhouse research institutions. While leaders of the five founding institutions have yet to disclose the project’s price tag, it’s estimated to cost $1.5 billion. Dubbed TMC³, the project is a collaboration between the Texas Medical Center, Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine, Bryan-based Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston-based University of Texas Health Science Center and Houston-based University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Construction is slated to begin in 2019, with a completion date scheduled for 2022.

10. Indiana University Health Prepares for $1B Transformation

Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health is planning a major consolidation project with an anticipated price tag of $1 billion. The project will include a major overhaul and expansion at IU Health’s 589-bed Methodist Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children, both located in Indianapolis. In addition, the project calls for closing University Hospital.

11. UC San Francisco Developing $1.5B Hospital

UC San Francisco is building a $1.5 billion replacement hospital, supported by a record-breaking $500 million commitment. The donation, from the Helen Diller Foundation, will support the planning, design and construction of the facility. The new hospital will replace the aging, out-of-date San Francisco-based Moffitt and Long Hospitals. The replacement facility, expected to open by 2030, is part of a revitalization project for UCSF’s Parnassus Heights campus. The hospital will be constructed on the site currently occupied by the San Francisco-based Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics.

12. BJC Healthcare Embarks on $1B Expansion

As part of a planned $1 billion transformation project, St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare unveiled its 12-story inpatient tower at St. Louis-based Barnes-Jewish Hospital and an expansion of St. Louis Children’s Hospital Friday. The new inpatient space, named Parkview Tower, will consolidate labor and delivery facilities in the Women’s & Infant’s Center and will expand inpatient care for the health system’s Siteman Cancer Center. The building also has over 400 parking spaces. The St. Louis Children’s Hospital expansion includes an enlarged neonatal intensive care unit that connects via skywalk to the Parkview Tower.

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