- Years after Wellstar closed one of only two level 1 trauma centers in Atlanta, several large construction projects are underway in the metro area. Key projects include Grady’s proposed $1B medical campus in Union City, a new teaching hospital planned by Atrium Health in Adair Park, a $1B Wellstar hospital and a Centurion Foundation/Emory Healthcare project at Northlake Mall.
- The Cato Institute compared health care services in states with certificate of need (“CON”) laws and those without. The research concluded that patients in states without CON laws tend to have a broader choice of providers compared with states that have CON laws, and the contrast is particularly stark regarding access to rural hospitals.
- HCA Healthcare has acquired Texas MedClinic and its 40 urgent care facilities across Texas, rebranding them under its CareNow division. The locations have been distributed among HCA-owned and partnered systems, including Methodist Healthcare (which added 18 of the clinics) and St. David’s HealthCare (which added 14).
- Tampa General Hospital has partnered with the Michaels Organization to develop Hillsborough County’s (FL) first employer-sponsored workforce housing project, a $45M development featuring 170 apartment units designed for Tampa General employees. The project is funded through a public-private partnership.
- Two potential hospital operators are currently in active talks with property owner Medical Properties Trust to take over and reopen the vacant Norwood Hospital in Norwood, Massachusetts, which closed after Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy in 2024. If a deal is not finalized by November 1, 2026, it is possible the state would take the property via eminent domain.
- Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate and Nuveen Real Estate have formed a $400M equity joint venture to support roughly $1.3B in total development costs. The JV will finance ground-up development initiatives for the next two years, with an emphasis on high-growth markets.
- Hoar Construction is investing significantly in converting vacant retail drugstores into freestanding emergency departments. This method of adaptive reuse allows health systems to expand into local communities rapidly because the footprints are around the same size and the buildings are located in existing high-traffic retail locations.
- Seattle Children’s is constructing a $103M ambulatory surgery center in Federal Way (WA) which will add three pediatric operating rooms to its existing outpatient clinic and will handle surgical cases across 12 specialties in a 37,000-sf footprint.
- ECU Health (NC) is seeking state approval to issue up to $700M in tax-exempt revenue bonds, using $205M to fund new capital projects and hospital expansions while refinancing existing debt. The planned expansions include two new acute-care bed towers, expanding an ASC and developing a new central pharmacy distribution center.
- In a recent presentation, Mike Chihoski, VP of Facilities, Design and Construction at UCHealth (CO), emphasized construction delivery method as a crucial decision point in any hospital project. UCHealth is increasingly using alternative delivery models on its more complex projects and using more balanced agreement templates to save time and cost.
For additional information on this topic, please contact:
- Andrew Dick at adick@hallrender.com or (317) 977-1491;
- Joel Swider at jswider@hallrender.com or (317) 429-3638; or
- Your primary Hall Render or Hall Render Advisory Services contact.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot—outside of an attorney-client relationship—answer specific questions that would be legal advice.
