VCU Health plans to add 16-story hospital tower

At its downtown medical center campus in Richmond, the VCU Health System hopes to soon construct a major hospital tower that would eventually be 16 stories tall and feature 576 beds.

The health system has recently issued requests for proposals for both project management services and architectural and engineering services related to the project, to be located at the corner of East Leigh and North 12th streets.

The first phase of the project would involve building a tower eight stories above grade, featuring 240 beds, 10 operating rooms and one procedure room, supported by 28 prep, recovery and post-anesthesia care unit rooms, according to the RFP.

It would also include the construction of a 73,500-square-foot central utility plant, north of Leigh Street and adjacent to the VCU School of Nursing. The three-story facility would heat and cool the new hospital tower, as well as house equipment for building utilities and services.

The project’s second phase would bring the new hospital facility to 16 floors above grade and add 336 beds.

To make room for the new building, VCU Health plans to relocate and demolish its Health Sciences Library, the Strauss Research Building and an 800-space visitor parking deck.

The deadline to respond to the project management services request was July 15, while the deadline to reply to the A&E services RFP is Wednesday. Both contracts are expected to be awarded in November.

VCU Health did not immediately return requests for comment. The health system’s vision statement for the project says the new patient tower “will serve the community and be a destination for high acuity specialized care. Organized around service line excellence, this new tower will provide resources for advanced education and research, expanding our local and national reach as the preferred academic health system.”

A preliminary timeline for the project, as outlined in the RFP, calls for the design phase to occur between 2026 and 2028, with construction to occur from 2027 to 2032 and occupancy to begin in 2032 or 2033.

Based in Richmond, VCU Health has more than 800 physicians. It reported $3.54 billion in revenue for the 2023-2024 year, with net income of $442.5 million