Construction is set to begin this month on a $318 million project that will transform Arkansas Children’s hospital campuses in Little Rock and Springdale.
The first phase of the Little Rock segment of the project is expected to be completed in the May or June of 2026, President and CEO Marcy Doderer told Arkansas Business in a conference room on the Little Rock campus. Construction to expand Arkansas Children’s Northwest is scheduled to begin in the summer and also should be completed in the summer of 2026.
The construction can’t come soon enough for Arkansas Children’s.
“We see more and more children seeking our services every day,” Doderer said. “And our outpatient facilities are old. … They’re not designed for how you wish to deliver pediatric subspecialty clinic care today. And my fear is without this kind of investment in bricks and mortar, those families will try to seek service elsewhere.”
In May 2023, Arkansas Children’s announced the eight-year project, the largest expansion in its 112-year history. The project will feature 265,000 SF of new space between the two campuses and about 170,000 SF of renovated space.
The project also will add 150 providers — physicians, nurse practitioners, etc. — and another 400 jobs to Arkansas Children’s system, which has about 5,200 employees.
The goals of the project include improving access to the campuses and the on-campus experience at the hospitals. The project also prepares the campuses to treat the sickest children.
Arkansas Children’s has seen more patients in recent years. In 2016, as the Little Rock nonprofit planned to open Arkansas Children’s Northwest, there were 14,800 inpatient admissions to Arkansas Children’s Hospital and 372,600 patient encounters across its system. In its last fiscal year, which ended June 30, inpatient admissions had grown by a third and 578,000 patient encounters were up by 55%.
The expansion project for both campuses will be paid for with up to $162 million in bonds. Last year, Arkansas Children’s issued $134 million in bonds for the Little Rock campus. Bonds have not yet been issued for the Springdale project.
Plans also call for Arkansas Children’s to use $66 million from its cash reserves and $90 million in donations specifically for the construction. Arkansas Children’s is working with donors to raise the money for the project.
“We’re funding more than two-thirds of the project by taking on debt and using our own savings to do that,” Doderer said.
She said that Arkansas Children’s — like other hospitals — has seen increases in its supplies and labor costs while reimbursements from insurance companies and government payers haven’t kept pace.
Doderer said that she has “absolute confidence in our team’s ability to deliver exceptional care, produce the kinds of clinical outcomes we want, and do so in a way that’s financially sustainable.”
S&P Global Ratings of New York in May placed an AA- rating on the bond issue for the Little Rock campus, and it affirmed its AA- rating on Arkansas Children’s existing bonds.
“The rating reflects our view of Arkansas Children’s healthy operating performance and cash flow, robust unrestricted reserves, strong business position, and manageable debt,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Concy Richards wrote. “The stable outlook reflects our view of Arkansas Children’s healthy and resilient financial profile, including a robust pro forma balance sheet and solid operating earnings.”
The LR Campus
The project will add 190,000 SF to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and renovate 150,000 SF.
An outpatient building will be added at West 10th Street and Arkansas Children’s Way that will be used as a surgery center, an orthopedic clinic and the hospital’s sports medicine program. It will have 26 exam rooms.
“We have a large sports medicine program,” Doderer said. “But we have to kind of squeeze them into existing space, and now we get to really design it purposely to be a sports medicine clinic with the physical therapy spaces designed for athletes and the orthopedic clinic right next door.”
The hospital’s Clinical Research Unit also will be housed in the new building.
That building will be connected to the hospital with a skybridge on the third floor. The skybridge will have two hallways, a public-facing one for the families and a hallway behind it for Arkansas Children’s to move supplies.
A parking section in the front of the hospital will be moved to create green space. The park-like space will give “families and staff a little place for respite,” Doderer said. “There’ll be outdoor dining and relaxation spaces.”
The project also includes a new three-story main entrance, which will be shifted a little to the south from where it stands now.
The lobby will include patient and family services. “It’ll be bright and light with great wayfinding back into the existing hospital, back into the new spaces,” Doderer said.
The lobby also will have access to financial counseling, medical records, a family resource center and a cafe and gift shop.
After the new construction, many parts of the hospital are scheduled to be renovated.
The NWA Campus
Meanwhile, Arkansas Children’s Northwest also will be undergoing construction. That project calls for adding about 72,000 SF, renovating existing space and then building an outpatient clinic space across from the hospital’s parking lot.
“We’re also adding surgical space, more operating rooms, procedure rooms, more clinic space,” Doderer said.
The additional square footage will include a five-story expansion and connect to the existing building.
Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects and Cromwell Architects Engineers, both of Little Rock, are the designers on both projects. Nabholz Construction of Conway is the lead contractor.
“We have to be able to grow and take care of more children because, actually, more children will need us as the state’s only pediatric health system,” Doderer said. “That burden really falls to us to make sure we can take care of the kids with rare diseases. We can take care of the children with heart disease and cancer diagnoses and transplant needs.”
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