Southern Apex is set to become the home of the new children’s hospital that UNC Health and Duke Health are joining forces to build.
Officials announced Thursday morning that the project will become part of the 1,200-acre Veridea (pronounced Ver-i-day-a) development, just off Interstate 540 at the U.S. 1 interchange. It’s expected to provide unique pediatric services, while acting as a major economic development for the Triangle.
“We are incredibly excited to confirm Apex and Wake County as the home for NC Children’s,” Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health, said in a release. “This campus will create a brighter, healthier future for generations of children and adolescents across North Carolina and the Southeast, and we’re thrilled to have Apex as our home and partner.”
The estimated $2 billion project will use 230 acres of the Veridea site and is acquiring the land from the state pension fund. State Treasurer Brad Briner declined to provide financial details “for now” but said the fund will receive “a good return on [its] investment. This is truly a win-win-win.”
Officials with the health systems say they’re shooting for a 2027 groundbreaking and expect that construction will take six years. Duke and UNC are among the state’s largest hospital systems.
The project will include a 500-bed pediatric hospital that will include about 1.6 million square feet of floor space and its own “integrated central utility plant to support around-the-clock care and operations,” officials say.
Additional components include :
- A 70-bed, 200,000-square-foot, pediatric inpatient behavioral health hospital.
- A 350,000-square-foot medical office building with an ambulatory surgical center, outpatient clinics and specialty care services.
- A 200,000-square-foot administrative office building.
The health systems are soliciting interest from potential designers and have set a July 28 deadline for interested firms to submit answers to a request for qualifications.
State and health systems officials announced the project earlier this year and said a site would be selected this summer. Speculation had centered on land near the SAS Institute complex in Cary near Interstate 40.
But the Veridea property is closer to a Greenfield site and, unlike the Cary option, is at a new interchange that isn’t already supporting the traffic of a large enterprise.
Interstate 540 in southern Wake County is a toll road. But officials of the health systems noted the location “is also accessible by multiple major roadways with no toll. We will consider the toll road and its impact on patients, families and teammates in our planning over the next several years.”
Officials have said the project financial will rely heavily on the two health systems. But a state subsidy of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars is also involved. That state contribution is a focus of budget negotiations between the House and Senate.
Veridea’s developer is New York City-based RXR, which has an extensive portfolio of successful projects in its hometown. It was founded in 2007 by CEO Scott Rechler and now also has residential developments in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Texas. It owns or manages more than 30 million square feet of commercial properties and 9,600 multifamily units.
Along with the children’s hospital, Veridea may eventually include about 8,000 homes, 3.5 million square feet of retail and dining, 12 million square feet of office and research space and a new Wake Tech Community College campus.
