Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has unveiled plans to replace its Egleston location with a sprawling North Druid Hills campus, a $1 billion project that could involve extensive roadwork on I-85.
The proposal includes a 446-bed hospital, an “advanced pediatrics” center, support buildings, more than 20 acres of greenspace and miles of walking trails and paths. Public hearings on the development are planned before the Brookhaven Planning Commission on Dec. 6 and the City Council on Dec. 12.
The fate of the Egleston location near Emory University isn’t yet clear. Under the plans, its inpatient operations would shift to the new location in 2025.
Plans call for 446 beds in two patient towers, with an attached medical office building and a consolidated AFLAC Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. The plans also call for a “central energy plant” and parking decks, as well as funding for road improvements nearby, including tunneling a road under I-85.
The project would “kick off” the process for redesigning the I-85/North Druid Hills intersection, the hospital said, adding that it’s committing $40 million to road improvements.
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“We intend to be a catalyst for long-awaited transportation and infrastructure improvements along this corridor,” said Donna Hyland, CEO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “Our investments will make it easier for our patient families to reach us and improve some existing traffic and pedestrian challenges for our neighbors.”
Children’s hopes to start construction by 2020 and finish it by 2026.
The hospital said the plans will transform an existing landscape of one-story, 50-year-old office buildings at the intersection of I-85 and North Druid Hills Road into a “pediatric healthcare destination set in a healing, natural landscape.”
Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst said he’s looking forward to the development creating “a new front door for Brookhaven while providing a healing natural environment for children from Brookhaven and across the state.”
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