COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) has broken ground on a $463 million expansion project at its Colorado Springs campus.
The project will increase the size of the UCHealth Memorial Hospital North campus by more than 300,000 square feet, inclusive of a six-story inpatient tower, eight new operating rooms and an expanded emergency department. Approximately 45 percent of the new space will be built out for immediate use, while the remaining space will be shelled to accommodate future growth.
In addition, the expansion will increase the hospital’s capacity from 140 beds to 190, initially adding 34 medical-surgical beds and 14 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. Lastly, the project includes the construction of a new parking garage with roughly 875 spaces for patients, visitors and staff, as well as renovations to the lobby, pharmacy, laboratory, kitchen and cafeteria of the main hospital building.
Perkins & Will is the project architect, and JE Dunn is serving as the general contractor. Milwaukee-based investment and development firm Hammes is serving as UCHealth’s owner representative and project manager. A groundbreaking ceremony took place earlier in the month, and completion is slated for summer 2029.
“Expanding an active hospital requires a careful balance between advancing the project and maintaining uninterrupted patient care,” says Justin Franklin, healthcare vice president at Hammes. “Our team is focused on proactively identifying and managing risks and working closely with UCHealth and the project team to minimize disruption to current hospital operations.”
UCHealth is a nonprofit health system that has 38,000 employees, 15 acute-care hospitals and thousands of physicians across Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska. The system’s primary hospital is the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo.
- Taylor Williams