New Frisco hospital to be built near PGA resort, Universal theme park

Baylor Scott & White plans to start construction in March of a new hospital in Frisco, just minutes away from the Omni PGA Frisco Resort and the future site of a new Universal Parks and Resorts theme park.

The 339,988-square-foot facility at the northeast corner of PGA Parkway and the Dallas North Tollway is expected to be completed by May 2025, according to a permit filed with the state.

Julie Smith, spokeswoman for Baylor Scott & White, the largest nonprofit hospital system in Texas, said in an email that it plans to disclose more details soon once its plan is finalized.

“As this region is one of the fastest growing in the country, and as we have served its families for more than 15 years, we have been exploring for many months how to keep pace with the area’s explosive growth,” Smith’s email said.

The early estimated cost of the structure is $265 million, with Dallas’ HKS Inc. listed as the design firm. Baylor Scott & White bought the property from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Blue Star Land in June 2021.

Plans for the new hospital first surfaced last summer when Baylor Scott & White sought rezoning of the 47.4-acre parcel. It also said then that its plans for a multistory health complex weren’t finalized.

Texas has more hospitals than any other state in part because it doesn’t require a state-approved certificate of need.

Health care construction in Texas tends to follow residential growth patterns, making high-income Frisco and other Collin County communities desirable. Collin County’s population is expected to double to 2.4 million by 2050.

Friso also offers health care operators the potential to tap into a large base of insured customers. The uninsured rate in its ZIP codes is only 6.8%, compared with 18.4% statewide.

Baylor Scott & White’s new hospital will join a growing list of health care facilities clustering in what’s been described as a medical district of the north. It’s already built a sports medicine facility just 10 miles and a few highway exits away at The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters and mixed-use project.

Competitor Texas Health Frisco will be even closer, just 5 miles south of the proposed facility. That $270 million collaboration between Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern was a hallmark project in 2019.

Scottish Rite, Cook Children’s, Children’s Health and Medical City all have new facilities nearby or under construction. In Celina, just north of Frisco and Prosper, Methodist and Scottish Rite have new projects in the works.

Children’s Health also is completing a major expansion of its Plano medical campus, adding a 300,000-square-foot, seven-floor tower and expanding bed capacity from 72 to 212.

Earlier this week, Children’s and UT Southwestern confirmed they are exploring construction of a new pediatric campus in Dallas’ medical district. That project could cost as much as $2.5 billion.

Nationally, there were more than 100 major hospital projects announced last year, including 20 with $1 billion or more price tags.