Mercy, Alice L. Walton Foundation break ground on Arkansas health campus
FOX23 News at 9 p.m.
BENTONVILLE, Ark., (KBSI) — The Alice L. Walton Foundation and Mercy broke ground Thursday on a health care campus that will bring expanded specialty services to northwest Arkansas.
The AWSOM Whole Health Campus will be developed on more than 120 acres about 2 miles east of downtown Bentonville. Plans include cardiac and cancer care, orthopedics, gastroenterology, neurology and virtual care.
Construction has begun on the campus’s first building, the 709,000-square-foot Center for Advanced Specialty Care. The facility is expected to open in 2029 and will provide cardiac services through an affiliation with Cleveland Clinic.
Plans also call for more than 1.1 million square feet of cancer treatment facilities and a hospital with more than 250 beds and 40 operating rooms. The development is expected to include nearly 3 million square feet of specialty care facilities when completed.
Mercy President and CEO Steve Mackin said the project is intended to expand access to specialized treatment for patients across the Heartland, including those in rural communities.
The campus will operate in coordination with the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Heartland Whole Health Institute and Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas. Developers said the project will also include trails, therapeutic landscapes and gathering areas.
The Tyson Family Foundation and Tyson Foods announced a combined $50 million charitable pledge supporting the campus. It is the first major philanthropic contribution announced for the project.
CannonDesign is serving as the lead architect, EDSA is overseeing landscape architecture and planning, and Nabholz is the construction manager for the first phase.
