UCHealth Memorial Hospital North Expansion, Colorado Springs

The UCHealth Memorial Hospital North expansion had its official groundbreaking on Oct. 13, 2026, and it nearly doubles a Colorado Springs hospital that didn’t exist 20 years ago. JE Dunn Construction, which built the original hospital on Briargate Parkway, is back as general contractor.

The case for it is in the occupancy numbers. UCHealth says hospitalizations rose 25% from 2020 through 2025, emergency visits 41% and surgeries 59%. Medical and surgical units averaged 94% occupancy last year and often hit 100%, leaving patients waiting in the emergency department or recovery.

Project Scope

UCHealth announced about 330,000 square feet of new construction in December 2024, with roughly 45% built out now and the rest left as shell space. The centerpiece is a six-story inpatient tower that opens with 36 medical-surgical beds and 14 ICU beds, bringing the hospital to 190 beds with room for 320. It sits on top of the existing sterile processing department, which is part of why utility relocation started back in May.

Operating rooms go from 10 to 14 in the first phase, with four more planned later. The emergency department gains 12 exam rooms. The lab, kitchen and cafeteria get bigger, and the main lobby is renovated. A parking garage on the east side of campus breaks ground in December and is supposed to be the first piece to open, in spring 2028. Everything is scheduled to wrap by summer 2029, and all of it happens around a working hospital. JE Dunn expects 200 to 300 workers on site at peak.

Why It Matters

Memorial Hospital North opened in 2007 on what its superintendent remembers as an open field. It added a bigger emergency department and more operating rooms in 2018 and a birth center in 2019, and Children’s Hospital Colorado built its Colorado Springs hospital on the same campus. North Colorado Springs kept growing faster than the beds did.

The numbers have moved since the announcement, so read them carefully. UCHealth called phase one a $407 million project in December 2024. The Gazette reported $463 million at the groundbreaking. The garage went from 979 stalls on six levels to 875 covered spaces, and its start slipped from early 2025 to December 2026. None of that’s unusual for a hospital job that spent two years in design, but it means the 2029 date is the one to watch.

UCHealth, a nonprofit and Colorado’s largest Medicaid provider, expects to add about 300 employees to the roughly 1,200 at the hospital now.

Project Team & Details