Atrium seeks $75 million from local taxpayers for ‘innovation district’ around med school
Charlotte’s largest hospital system, Atrium Health, is seeking $75 million from the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to help create its “innovation district” surrounding the future medical school.
The medical school, planned through a partnership between Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health, including Wake Forest School of Medicine, will be Charlotte’s first four-year medical school.
Charlotte is the nation’s largest city without a four-year medical school, according to Atrium Health.
The school is scheduled to open in 2024. Atrium plans to create an innovation district surrounding the school, releasing new details on the corridor at a Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
Atrium partnered with Wexford Science and Technology to present on the future Innovation District.
The medical school and surrounding innovation district will create thousands of jobs in Mecklenburg County, including a number of jobs that won’t require a traditional four-year degree, Wexford’s Tom Osha told commissioners.
The county has previously partnered with private businesses to develop Mecklenburg and Charlotte districts, including in August when it committed more than $7 million for improvements at the Eastland Mall redevelopment project with Tepper Sports & Entertainment. The city is committing about $4 million to that project for a total of $11 million dedicated to infrastructure improvements like parking spaces and new road networks.
Atrium has not said exactly what kind of businesses the innovation district would host, but said the district could create 11,500 jobs over the next 15 years and more than $800 million in earnings. The expected new jobs include positions in scientific research and development, computer systems, consulting, higher education and warehousing.
And 30 to 40% of those jobs would likely be available to people without a bachelor’s degree, according to Atrium.
Atrium did not immediately release the study behind those findings. It says it plans to invest more than $1.1 billion in creating the innovation district.
“What we’re looking to do is create a knowledge community here in Charlotte,” Atrium CEO Gene Woods said Tuesday. “… We want to create a place where excellence is practiced and excellence is learned, and then it’s done in the most inclusive and equitable way possible.”
The Charlotte medical school will be the first major medical school in the country constructed in the post-COVID-19 era, Woods said.
“We’re going to be able to build it with the lessons that we’ve learned from the pandemic,” he said.
The school will be built on a 20-acre parcel at the intersection of Baxter Street and South McDowell Street in midtown, less than a mile from Atrium’s flagship Carolinas Medical Center in Dilworth, Woods said in March.
Atrium has not revealed the innovation district’s exact location.
County and city funds
The innovation district project will need “serious public support,” Mecklenburg County Economic Development Director Peter Zeiler told commissioners Tuesday.
“From an economic development perspective, this is probably the most exciting thing to happen in Mecklenburg County since the expansion of Charlotte Douglas International Airport,” Zeiler said. “This is truly a catalytic event for the county.”
Atrium is looking for $75 million from the city and county as well as $25 million from federal grants.
Most of the $75 million would go toward infrastructure, including new streets, street improvements, utility relocation and parking.
The project involves building more than 1.5 million square feet of space, Zeiler said.
“It is significant,” he added. “And it’s going to bring significant new tax revenue.”
The county’s contribution could total $50 million as a tax increment grant over 20 years, Zeiler told commissioners.
Several commissioners said they were excited about the plans.
“This is one of the largest projects we’ve had in the Charlotte community in a significantly long period of time,” Chairman George Dunlap said. “… In terms of economic development, it has the potential to generate millions and millions and millions of dollars for the Mecklenburg County community and the region.”
The creation of a medical school and an innovation district could be “a turning point” for the city and the region as a whole, Commissioner Pat Cotham said Tuesday.
“As long as I have lived in the Carolinas, we have needed a medical school,” Cotham said. “I thought we would have had one a long time ago so I’m all for that.”
“This would really put us on the cutting edge,” she added.
Still, several commissioners asked for details on how the district would affect existing Charlotte residents, especially people of color.
Ensuring the district will benefit existing residents will need to be a shared project for Atrium and county leaders, commissioner Mark Jerrell said. But he is “cautiously optimistic,” he said.
Cotham asked Woods to ensure jobs for people who “need a second chance in life.”
That commitment is part of the vision for the innovation district, Woods said.
Housing will be a consideration for the project as well, Osha said. Many of the sites Atrium is looking at are industrial, so there would not be displacement of existing residents, he added.
County and city leaders are expected to continue to discuss the innovation district in future meetings.
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