The University of Utah has received a $75 million gift for the construction of an 800,000-square-foot hospital and medical campus in West Valley City, roughly 11 miles west of the main campus in Salt Lake City.
The gift comes from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, a Utah-based philanthropy that invests in conservation, education, the arts and health and wellness.
The new medical campus will be the centerpiece of an $855 million university initiative designed not only to provide medical care to an underserved area but also to expand training, research, educational and career opportunities in health care while boosting the local economy.
“This groundbreaking investment continues the Eccles family’s extraordinary legacy of expanding health care access and education across Utah,” said University of Utah president Taylor Randall. “For 60 years, the Eccles family has offered both unwavering leadership and financial support for excellence in health care throughout the state.”
He noted the Eccles’ family contributions in establishing the university’s medical library, overseeing the fundraising campaigning for the construction of the University of Utah hospital in 1975 and donating $110 million for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine in 2021.
The new medical campus will feature a 90-bed hospital and 200 exam rooms in outpatient clinics specializing in heart care, orthopedics, women’s health and pediatrics, as well as internal medicine and urgent care.
“As a family and as a Foundation, we are so thrilled about this project because this community—right here in our Salt Lake Valley—has not had access to the kind of world-class medical care that they deserve,” said Spencer F. Eccles, chairman and CEO of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. “Our hope is that this hospital and health campus will become an indispensable community resource, a hub for superior health care, education and training, and expanded economic opportunity.”
Construction of the new campus is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed in 2028, with hospital rooms becoming available in 2029.
