Baptist Health Care Shares Redevelopment Vision for E Street Campus
5/24/2022
After nearly three years of research, community discussions and guidance from urban planning experts, Baptist Health Care has shared a vision for the redevelopment of its current campus located at the corner of E and Moreno streets.
The redevelopment vision reimagines the campus as a mixed-use development that seeks to incorporate multi-family and single-family housing as well as community-enhancing services such as parks and other green spaces, economic opportunities, and social and health services. The seven main components of this redevelopment vision are:
- Public investment in a new park on the western side of the main campus and a Moreno Street greenway.
- Public investment to restore selected street connections to the original street grid, including the reconnection of I Street between Mallory and Moreno streets.
- Baptist ensuring there is a solution for health care that meets the needs of the neighborhood and surrounding areas.
- Mid-rise multi-family buildings built by housing developers possibly including both workforce housing and mixed-income developments.
- Market-rate single family homes and/or townhouses built by housing developers.
- Workforce single family homes and/or townhouses built by housing developers.
- Non-residential active ground floor spaces to be used for neighborhood retail, community facilities and other community-enhancing uses.
Partnerships among local government entities and community agencies along with the investment and expertise of the development community are necessary for the realization of the redevelopment vision. As a next step, Baptist will issue a request for proposals for the property for real estate development, likely in June.
“We are pleased with the active engagement we’ve had with community leaders, residents of the immediate neighborhood and many other stakeholders,” said Brett Aldridge. Aldridge serves as Baptist Health Care senior vice president of strategy and business development and administrator of Baptist Hospital. “This is a transformational opportunity that will require the collaboration of many stakeholders. While we will continue to meet the health care needs of our community, we have also invested significant time, attention and resources into defining a comprehensive vision for the redevelopment of this campus that meets the needs of the surrounding neighborhood and broader community. Given the significant support from stakeholders for this vision, we will now be asking the development community to bring it to life.”
The redevelopment vision is the result of extensive research and engagement that has been ongoing since June 2019 when Baptist first announced that it was building a new campus at Brent Lane and I-110. At that time, a community advisory council was formed that grew to include more than 70 stakeholders from multiple sectors in the community. This group provided input on community needs that should be considered in the redevelopment of the E and Moreno Street campus. Additionally, feedback provided through 160 surveys completed by neighbors living within a one-mile radius of the current campus was considered. These inputs were supplemented by dozens of stakeholder interviews.
The resulting data was then reviewed and analyzed by a committee comprised of members of Baptist’s board of directors as well as additional community leaders. Baptist engaged JLP+D Urban Planners, a well-respected national firm specializing in urban planning and redevelopment, to work with Baptist leadership and the committee to create a redevelopment vision that balances Baptist’s Mission and best interests with the wants and needs of the community while also considering what the local market can actually support. This vision was approved by the Baptist Health Care board of directors and will be included in the real estate offering that will go to the market in the coming weeks.
Baptist continues to proactively build partnerships that will bring about the greatest potential to meet community needs in the redevelopment of the E and Moreno Street campus. After more than two years of research and planning that involved the engagement of various individuals and groups, the organization is excited to share this vision with the community.
Baptist will continue to share information as details evolve.