UNC Health Aims to Expand Medical Offices at Eastowne Over 25 Years

 

UNC Health is interested in expanding their buildings on 100-800 Eastowne Drive. 

The group is proposing the creation of 8 to 10 medical office buildings on the site over the period of several years. 

The primary use for the development is outpatient health care and associated functions, as well as space for research and site-specific retail.

The existing campus development is UNC Eastowne Medical Office Building, which opened in March of 2021. Located near 1-40 off of 15-501, it is a six-story building with multiple clinical services including allergy, cardiology and infectious disease.

The Eastowne building has been successful, but UNC Health says they need more space. 

“We need to be able to move and decompress outpatient services from the Medical Center — we can’t emphasize this enough,” Simon George, the Vice President of Real Estate and Development at UNC Health, said to the Chapel Hill Town Council in a meeting on January 11.

George said by expanding the Eastowne campus, UNC Health would offer more outpatient space, which could lead to increased bed capacity at the Medical Center. In addition, George noted UNC Health wants those services to remain local within the community, but have easier regional access off the interstate.

“Our home is Chapel Hill — we want to stay and continue to grow in Chapel Hill,” said George. “We want to keep it local. We want to continue to grow in this community.”

UNC Health has long had interest in the Eastowne property. George said the health system proposed the project to the Town Council before, but each iteration fell short of approval. This time, UNC Health is seeking to build 8 to 10 medical buildings with structured parking.

“The size itself depending on each building will be between 1.6 and 1.8 million square feet,” said George. “As we mentioned in the past, that is considerably smaller than what we had proposed at different times – it was well towards 3 million square feet but we heard you, we heard the community and we paired it down to that range.”

The development timeline is to create a second medical office building as soon as possible, one building every three to five years and a full buildout over 25 or more years.

UNC Health said it is hoping to get entitlement for the entire project by June and begin site work by the second quarter of 2024. But Chapel Hill Town Council Member Amy Ryan said she is doubtful about the feasibility of the project’s accelerated timeline. Ryan said previous large-scale expedited projects became difficult for the council to review after their proposal. 

“The larger picture of a bigger development, especially when it’s not very clearly defined, is problematic for me,” said Ryan. 

Mayor Pam Hemminger agreed, saying she is excited about UNC Health Care having better patient care, but wants planners to create a design that is easier to visualize — and feasible for the space. 

“I need to see a little more,” said Hemminger. “I can’t just theorize that you’re going to put 8 to 10 buildings and 4 to 7 parking decks and still have green space.”

Council member Karen Stegman echoed other council member’s concerns about the scale and timeline of the project, but added she is ultimately optimistic about the concept. 

“I’ve heard friends, families, colleagues say when they go to the new medical building, what an improvement it’s been compared to the medieval dungeon of Memorial Hospital,” said Stegman. “I support the vision you have with these services. As I get older and as people I know get older, I feel more acutely lucky to have you here in our community — what that means for so many people who even come from very far away to access these services.”

 

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