No idea the right thread for this, but UNC Health wants to build a $2-3b children’s hospital. It would be the first freestanding children’s hospital in the state. They want a whole health campus for this and are looking for 200-300 acres. Anyone want to speculate where it will go?
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I speculate it will go in the Blue Ridge Rd area. Hey look, now this is definitely the right thread!
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“We’re going to approach this differently than a typical hospital project where you go build a facility with 35 acres of land,” Willis said."
Here’s hoping it’s in Raleigh especially since the UNC system is now HQ’ed in Raleigh and Chapel Hill is probably out due to distance from transit services.
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I like the Richmond Children’s Hospital
And would be a good fit in the DHHS remaining state land slated for private development:
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I like that idea!! But how would that work to give state owned land (DHHS) to another entity? Is UNC Healthcare private? or it is still considered part of the state run UNC system? It is nice (IMHO) if the Children’s hospital were located near an existing hospital, and you could throw a rock from here and hit Rex. So this location makes a lot of sense in my mind.
I work nearby in Wade Park, I’d love to see this parcel of land developed and densified sooner rather than later. But it is big enough to meet the needs of a totally new hospital.
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UNC Health is indeed owned by the state. I guess the fixed asset (state-owned land in this case) would be transferred to another state entity. But it probably would involve some red tape along with plenty of bickering and infighting, perhaps.
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They made a point of saying “we’re looking for between 200 to 300 acres to develop into a campus”.
That is a preposterously large amount of land to find in a major metro area, so therefore, this is the tell. They have a site chosen already but have to go through the motions of “site selection”.
I’m betting on “Carolina North” in Chapel Hill, which conveniently happens to have about 250 state-owned, nearly undeveloped acres slated for eventual development into a campus.
Short of something ridiculous like buying out IBM’s main campus at RTP, where on earth are they going to assemble that much land?
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It’s a nice piece of land for sure, but it doesn’t fit the criteria they want. They’re looking for 200-300 acres. This site doesn’t even come close. If they could workout a deal with NCSU for the horse farm across from Bandwidth, that could possibly fit the bill and it’s still right up the street from Rex. However I dont really see that that ever happening.
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I mean, thinking about it a bit more there are some outer suburban / exurban locations that could rework their master plans to set aside enough acreage for a plan like this - such as Veridea or Chatham Park. For something a little more central, there’s the Goodnights’ / SAS property off of Trenton Road (contingent on them deciding they even actually want to develop that property in the first place.)
Or for something a little less likely, look at NC State’s 1500 acre “Lake Wheeler Field Laboratory.”
Still. The specific number “needed”, 200-300 acres, is too suspicious. It’s tailor-made for Carolina North. They’ve been hunting for an anchor to get that plan off the ground for years, decades even. It’s got to be the front runner, at least.
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Veridea or Carolina North could possibly fit the bill, but Chatham Park seems way too far away. Something this important to the state they’d want closer to the population core of the region and the other hospitals.
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I don’t understand why they need so much land. Is it for private development, such as hotels amd restaurants like they mentioned in Cincinnati? If the land surrounding the PNC gets developed the way Dundon would like for it to be developed, then that would provide them with their desired amenities without the need for soo much land.
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Maybe Highwoods has already been selected as their developer of choice 
Parking lots as far as the eye can see…
NCSU didn’t need all the land of Centennial Campus just to expand their engineering school; it’s the whole concept of partnership and integration with industry that has made Centennial as successful as it is.
UNC wants their own version of Centennial Campus. This has always been their vision for Carolina North. And much as NCSU chose its engineering school to be the anchor at Centennial, my guess is that the hospital will be the anchor at Carolina North.
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And the new basketball arena!
UNC is no longer HQ’d in Chapel Hill (the state forced the system to move to Raleigh) and the lead for this project lives in Cary. So being based in Orange County is not likely a priority for UNC leadership.
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But UNC Health leadership is split between Triangle West (Orange/Durham) and Triangle East (Wake/Johnston). My assumption is this new children’s hospital will likely stay on that side of the split as it will function as a replacement for the old one.
None of this makes any sense. Why are they building a children’s hospital completely separate and far away from UNC Hospitals? Is it to be closer to population centers? Is it for greater autonomy? By separate, I don’t mean just the buildings are not part of the main hospital, but that it is a certain distance from the entire complex.
I don’t know many stand-alone, completely removed from the adult medical center childrens hospitals there are in the country. St. Jude’s, Shriners…that’s it. I mean, Cincinnati Childrens is located across the street from the adult hospital. UAB is the same. And then there are those that are attached to the main hospital, like Levine’s and Brenner’s here in NC or even Morgan Stanley and Hassenfeld in NYC.
So I don’t understand why they need the space or the far removed location.
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Lol at “within a 3 mile radius of Cincinnati Children’s, there’s 25 hotels, there’s 35 restaurants” - my dude that is a circle that covers almost all of the City.
This is exactly why I’ve somewhat been against this “move DHHS to the middle of nowhere” approach. They could’ve put DHHS headquarters, including the hospital, on one of the surface parking lots downtown, with a parking deck nearby or underground.
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