Texas Children’s Hospital Advances 2 Projects Valued at $686M

Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, Houston. Image courtesy of CannonDesign

Texas Children’s Hospital is in growth mode, with two major projects moving forward valued at an aggregate $686 million. The health-care organization has just revealed plans for the expansion of the Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women in Houston and has commenced construction of the new Texas Children’s Hospital for children and women in Austin.

READ ALSO: Trends to Watch in Post-Pandemic Health-Care Construction

Texas Children’s investment in new and expanded facilities is a sign of the times. “It is expected that Texas will continue to see growth in both inpatient and outpatient construction due to the population growth more than anything else,” John Huff, national managing director of Healthcare Advisory Services at Transwestern, told Commercial Property Executive.

Texas Children’s Hospital, Austin. Image courtesy of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc.

At the Pavilion for Women in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, the $201 million expansion project will result in additional space to accommodate a 30 percent increase in delivery volume, as well as room for specialized clinics and programs. The multi-phase project includes the conversion of the former 190,000-square-foot Baylor Clinic building at 6620 Main St. into the Main Tower and incorporating it into the existing Pavilion for Women campus via a sky bridge.

Phase 1 of the Pavilion for Women expansion endeavor entails the relocation of the Women’s Assessment Center to another floor and backfilling the former space with a 14-bed induction and observation unit. The initial phase is scheduled to reach completion in spring 2022, with the entire expansion project on track to be completed in 2024.

Adding up in Austin

Texas Children’s will add to its location footprint with the development of Texas Children’s Hospital for children and women in Austin. McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., which is aboard the project as general contractor, has already begun the process with the recent groundbreaking on the facility. Designed by architecture firm Page, the project carries a $485 million development price tag and will sprout up at 9835 N. Lake Creek Parkway.

The 365,000-square-foot freestanding facility will encompass 52 beds, as well as an on-site Texas Urgent Care location. Additionally, Texas Children’s will enhance the hospital property by building a 170,000-square-foot adjacent outpatient building to accommodate pediatric subspecialties. McCarthy expects to complete construction in time for the hospital to open in the first quarter of 2024.

Health-care construction in the pandemic era

There’s a great deal of construction activity underway across the U.S. in the health-care sector, and while an emphasis remains on outpatient facilities, hospitals continue to expand. In June, Cushman & Wakefield announced it had been selected to provide development management services for the $250 million renovation and expansion of the Saint Francis Hospital South campus in Tulsa, Okla. And earlier this month, the Alexandria City Council in Alexandria, Va., just outside Washington, D.C., announced that a relocated and expanded Inova Alexandria Hospital would serve as the anchor of the $2 billion mixed-use redevelopment of the former Landmark Mall.

“Hospital construction across the U.S. seems to be similar in scope and amount, but I believe the increase we have seen since the pandemic is the need for more access points for our health-care providers,” Huff said. “Obviously, testing and vaccination sites were new requirements to try to handle patients’ needs that had not been needed prior to the pandemic.”