Major health system to build hospital in Aurora
One of the state’s largest health systems will open a new medical campus in Aurora with plans to build a community hospital.
AdventHealth shared exclusively with the Denver Business Journal that the hospital system will begin construction Wednesday on a 40-acre campus located in The Aurora Highlands, a master-planned community on the east side of E-470 and south of Denver International Airport.
The land will first be used to build an $81 million, 88,000 square-foot facility that includes a freestanding emergency clinic — Aurora Highlands ER — an outpatient imaging center, and shelled clinic space, the health system said.
After the clinic’s expected opening in September 2026, an acute care hospital rated for Level III trauma could follow in just a few years, said Michael Goebel, CEO of AdventHealth Parker Hospital and Aurora Highlands ER.
Goebel said the health system will assess demand at the freestanding emergency clinic before moving forward with the hospital build. He said the system will break ground on the hospital when the emergency clinic sees the right number of patients.
“It could be five years. It could be a little longer than that. It could be a little shorter than that,” Goebel said.
Goebel said he will serve as CEO of the Parker and Aurora facilities until the standalone hospital is up and running.
Erin Ward, chief operating officer for AdventHealth Parker, said the system forecasts that the emergency department and outpatient imaging center will each see about 20 visits per day for the first three years.
Clinic space on the second floor of the building will have 27 exam rooms, with space for another 27 rooms on the third floor, he said. To start, Ward said he expects to have about 50 full-time employees working on the campus. The ER will use geothermal energy to heat and cool the building.
Goebel said the Aurora hospital will likely take a similar growth path to AdventHealth Castle Rock in its first years.
“It’s going to be core services of a small community hospital, and then go from there,” Goebel said. “You start adding orthopedics, you start adding women’s services and all the things that go with a general, acute care hospital.”
Typically, he said AdventHealth plans for 50 to 75 beds to start a new hospital build.
A strategic decision
The Aurora campus will house AdventHealth’s sixth hospital location and fifth standalone emergency clinic in Colorado, according to its website.
Based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, AdventHealth has hospitals in Littleton, Parker, Louisville, Castle Rock and Denver. The planned Aurora location marks a strategic geographic move to the north.
Until early 2023, AdventHealth worked in partnership with CommonSpirit Health under the operation of Centura Health. After Centura was dissolved, the two health systems were forced to plot their own competitive growth plans.
CommonSpirit in November purchased a 42-acre property in Douglas County’s unincorporated Meridian community to build a major medical campus offering yet-unnamed health care services. The project is expected to break ground in the third quarter of 2025.
Goebel said the decision to build the AdventHealth campus in Aurora was at least four years in the making and stems from strong population projections for the area that are similar to Parker, where he serves as a hospital CEO. The south metro area’s fast-growing population was the impetus for a $300 million, seven-story tower addition at AdventHealth Parker that broke ground earlier this month.
AdventHealth said it expects the Aurora Highlands neighborhood to grow by close 40% over the next 10 years. Goebel added that the service area surrounding the medical campus area should grow from 66,000 to 180,000 people due to new development.
“Going from Parker to DIA, there’s a lot of dirt moving,” he said.
Goebel added in a statement that the new emergency services will offer faster access to care for many people living in the area. He said the closest emergency room to the Aurora Highlands is currently at least nine miles away.
