More patients, parking and jobs coming to UNC hospital campus in Hillsborough
UNC Health Care is expanding to serve twice as many patients at its hospital campus near Interstate 40 in Hillsborough.
The Hillsborough Town Board recently approved a plan to add a four-story, 96,000-square-foot bed tower to the back side of the main building at UNC Hospitals on Waterstone Drive and expand the hospital’s existing central utility plant.
A separate plan, also approved at the board’s December meeting, would add a one-story, 15,000-square-foot medical office building near the northeastern corner of Waterstone Drive and Old N.C. 86.
The new UNC Hospitals tower will add 80 beds to the Hillsborough campus, which opened in 2015 on 58 acres within sight of Durham Tech’s Orange County campus and the growing Waterstone neighborhood. UNC Health Care opened a medical office building adjacent to the hospital in 2013.
The hospital has 83 patient beds. Construction on the new wing is expected to start early this year, said Margaret Hauth, planning director and assistant town manager.
More hospital beds
The expanded hospital is expected to add 100 jobs, as well as 30 rehabilitation beds and 50 acute-care beds.
The new wing will bring the hospital’s total square footage to roughly 365,000 square feet — about half of the 810,000 square feet of construction authorized by the campus master plan. It also will add more parking, bringing the number of spaces to over 1,000.
The campus treats more than 25,000 patients a year and is the primary workplace for about 400 UNC Health Care employees, hospital Vice President Jeff Strickler told the town boards last fall. It is the primary practice for over 100 doctors, he added.
UNC Health Care also will lease the medical office building planned for 2800 Old N.C. 86, between Waterstone Drive and Cates Creek Parkway. The building, developed by Flagship Healthcare Properties, will have urgent care at one end and UNC Family Medicine at the other, with a shared entrance and 74 parking spaces.
The lot is the first of several medical and commercial tracts along Old N.C. 86 that are expected to be developed.
Both the office building and the new UNC Hospitals patient wing will include stormwater ponds to handle runoff.
