Advocate Health touts early Pearl district wins, big ambitions for Charlotte
The Pearl district, home to Charlotte’s first four-year medical school, has achieved significant milestones since opening its doors last summer.
Leaders from Advocate Health, one of its major builders, boasted about that and more during a Wednesday panel hosted by the business networking-based Hood Hargett Breakfast Club.
“If you think this is a completion or a day to celebrate, we’re really just getting started,” said Steve Smoot, executive vice president and division president for North Carolina and Georgia.
Some of those developments include labs and a showroom with high-tech medical equipment that’s attracting doctors from all over the world.
The panel featured Smoot alongside Advocate colleagues Kinneil Coltman, senior executive vice president and chief consumer and social impact officer, and Collin Lane, executive vice president of professional and support services.
Tracy Dodson, chief operating officer and head of economic development at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, moderated the discussion.
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The Pearl in Charlotte becomes growing academic hub
Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte, welcomed 49 medical students when it opened last summer. The school of medicine is the academic core of Advocate Health.
Its first class started in July with 49 students. Enrollment is expected to increase to 100 students per class over the next five years at the Charlotte campus. Combined with the Winston-Salem campus, it will be the largest medical school in the region.
“... This will be a massive academic hub, and I’m excited about that,” Smoot said.
Here are some other highlights from the meeting.
Advocate works to fill space at The Pearl
The Pearl is a $1.5 billion innovation district in midtown Charlotte, with retail, apartments and academic spaces. It was created through a public-private partnership among Advocate, Wexford Science & Technology and Ventas Inc., a real estate investment trust. Advocate is the parent company of Atrium Health, the city’s largest hospital system.
Along with the medical school, it’s also home to several companies.
One is Siemens Healthineers, a German medical technology company that launched its first U.S.-based Experience Center in late September.
IRCAD established its North American headquarters at The Pearl, and IRCAD North America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atrium Health.
More than 2,700 people have visited IRCAD North America since it opened last September, the facility, with more than 7,000 expected annually if these trends continue.
“The faculty of IRCAD is like the Ferrari of the industry,” Lane said. “It is the upper echelon.”
Advocate anticipates economic impact, growth
While over $1.5 billion has been invested in The Pearl to date, Advocate anticipates significantly higher investment over time. To date, Advocate is in the first part of a multiphase development.
Lane told the breakfast group he anticipates the total investment could reach as high as $5 billion.
“Phase 1B” is slated to begin soon, introducing new hospitality options, hotels, retail spaces and multifamily rentals.
Beyond the physical skyline, the district aims to be a factor for local “economic mobility.”
Over the next 15 years, the district is projected to generate more than 5,500 on-site jobs. Between 30% to 40% will not require a four-year degree — based on economic impact data. It will produce 11,500 total jobs across the region, according to Advocate.
“We think that’s a really important contribution to the local economy,” Coltman said, “in terms of how you create faster pathways to economic mobility.”
The ‘Field of Dreams’ effect
Lane likened the district’s recruitment success to a “Field of Dreams” scenario — if you build it, they will come. The high-tech labs and showrooms are attracting interest from major biotech hubs like Boston, according to Lane.
“I have three companies like that right now that want to come here,” Lane said, though details regarding the interested firms were not disclosed.
The district’s lifestyle offerings are also expanding. Lane teased the upcoming arrival of a new restaurant anchored by a celebrity chef, with an official announcement expected soon.
For now, the community is encouraged to use the public spaces already available, such as the coffee shop in The Assembly.
“It’s a lovely, warm, welcoming space that we want the community to feel a part of,” Coltman said. “We really tried to design it with that in mind.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 5:16 AM.
