UCHealth planning medical campus in Broomfield

University of Colorado Health has purchased 66 acres within the North Park mixed-use development in Broomfield for the construction of a medical campus.

North Park is located west of Interstate 25, between Highway 7 and Northwest Parkway. The park is comprised of 935 acres and is being developed by Loveland-based McWhinney. The price of the land was $23.9 million, according to Broomfield public records. The deal closed Dec. 21, Jay Hardy, McWhinney vice president and North Park general manager, said.

The UCHealth medical campus will be located across from the Children Hospital Colorado’s North Campus on Highway 7. Children’s Hospital Colorado is a partner of UCHealth.

The project is in an early stage so UCHealth has yet to decide whether it will be a satellite campus with a few medical office buildings or a full-service hospital.

“UCHealth will examine the current and future health care needs of the community to decide what services to provide at the North Park location,” the release said.

The UCHealth board of directors approved the purchase of the land in August.

More than 400,000 people live within a 10-mile radius of North Park, and that number is expected to grow to 845,000 by 2030, according to the release.

“We’ll be listening closely to the community as we now decide what services should be offered at North Park to meet the needs of this area,” UCHealth President Rulon Stacey said.

The announcement comes just one week after UCHealth and Ivinson Hospital in Laramie, Wyo. announced a management deal. Under the deal, Ivinson becomes an affiliate of UCHealth but is still run by a seven-member board.

Last year, UCHealth was granted a 40-year, $1.79 lease of Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs.

UCHealth was created in early 2012 though a joint operating agreement between Denver-based University of Colorado Hospital and Fort Collins-based Poudre Valley Health System.

Hardy said McWhinney is happy to have UCHealth make the investment in North Park, and the company thinks the medical campus will benefit the rest of the development. The Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, which is a UCHealth hospital, helped drive the growth of McWhinney’s Centerra development, Hardy said.

“This is obviously a major anchor for us,” Hardy said. “We’re big fans of using a medical campus to anchor a growing community.”

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