Two large hospitals could be built within a stone’s throw from one another along a stretch of Baseline Road in Broomfield that’s already dense with health care facilities.
UCHealth has submitted to Broomfield city planners a proposal for a new hospital on the northwest corner of the Baseline Road (Colorado Highway 7) and Interstate 25 interchange, while AdventHealth has submitted plans for a facility just across the street on the southwest corner of that interchange. Both sites are less than a mile from the Children’s Hospital Colorado North Campus and a number of other outpatient health care facilities.
The proposals from UCHealth and AdventHealth are in early, conceptual stages and are expected to begin the formal review process with Broomfield planners, the city’s Land Use Review Commission and Broomfield City Council in February.
The Ikea connection
UCHealth is planning to build what it is calling the Broomfield North Campus on 110 acres north of Baseline Road.
“We’re really excited about this piece of land. We have a vision for creating a comprehensive community health center with advanced care,” Ryan Rohman, UCHealth’s president of Broomfield Hospital and Longmont’s Longs Peak Hospital, told BizWest Friday. “We really feel like the community of Broomfield and the area of the north metro market of Denver is in need of this. We’re watching our patients who are seeking specialty care needing to leave the market and the community as it’s grown to come to some of our other centers. And we really feel it’s time to serve that community and keep patients local when they’re in need.”
The specific location that UCHealth is targeting is significant because the new hospital would be built on a property that Swedish furniture giant Ikea has owned for years with the intent of building one of its large-footprint retail stores.
Ikea bought the Broomfield site in 2016 for $11.25 million. In the years since, the retailer has vacillated between being mostly mum, completely silent or cagey when asked for updates on the once-planned store, which Broomfield officials told BizWest in 2016 was likely to be open by 2018 or 2019.
In 2019, during a period when Ikea had recently announced that it was scrapping plans for new stores in North Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee, then-Broomfield mayor Randy Ahrens told the Denver Business Journal that development of the Baseline Road store was still moving forward, but the project was delayed and the square footage had been downsized.
Then in 2024, Ikea’s official Facebook account responded to a comment on one of its posts that asked the Swedish company whether it intended to move forward with the new Broomfield store: “IKEA USA has been on a journey to expand our multi-channel shopping experience with new retail locations, enhanced technology and greater accessibility to meet today’s customers. As part of this journey, we’ve challenged ourselves to re-evaluate some of our upcoming expansion projects. While this was an extremely difficult decision, we won’t be moving forward with our plans to build a store in Broomfield.”
In response to another Facebook commenter, who called the decision to pull out of Broomfield “beyond disappointing,” Ikea’s verified account replied, in part: “We’re sorry for the disappointment, we know our presence in Broomfield will be missed.”
BizWest in late 2024 asked Ikea for an update on the Broomfield project and was told in an email: “While we continue to look for different store formats to reach our customers, we have no updates to share at this time.” The company did not respond in 2024 to direct questions about its Facebook comments, nor did Ikea respond to a request for comment Friday.
UCHealth is in the process of purchasing the property, Rohman said, which would mean the end of Ikea’s fruitless Broomfield venture. A Broomfield city spokesperson confirmed as much to BizWest in an email Friday.
“IKEA has recently reevaluated its national retail expansion strategy and determined that its property at I-25 and Highway 7 no longer aligns with the company’s current growth model. It is Broomfield’s understanding that they will no longer be moving forward with a new retail store at this location,” the email said. “In light of this change, Broomfield became aware that IKEA has chosen to sell the property and that UCHealth has identified this site as their preferred location for a future mixed-use hospital development.”
The site of the proposed UCHealth hospital is very near to — but not contiguous with — a 66-acre property purchased in 2012 by UCHealth’s predecessor organization Poudre Valley Health System. Rohman said the hospital system still owns that parcel just southwest of the North Campus site but does not have current plans to develop it.
“The property to the west would be sold to another entity in the future if UCHealth moves forward with” its current North Campus plan, the Broomfield spokesperson’s email said.
Based on an interview with UCHealth leadership and an examination of Broomfield planning documents, here’s what we know about UCHealth’s conceptual plans for a new hospital:
The health system plans to close on a deal to buy the property north of Baseline Road in February. Construction could begin as soon as this year with a target opening date for the hospital set for 2029.
On the site, UCHealth intends to build a roughly 330,000-square-foot hospital that could reach up to 140 feet in height. Next to the hospital would be an approximately 140,000-square-foot medical office building standing as tall as 84 feet. Buildings of this size would require city approval for a land-use amendment, as current regulations cap height at 60 feet.
UCHealth’s conceptual proposal does not include an estimated number of beds planned for the new hospital.
“We anticipate a large number of services” available for patients at the medical office building adjacent to the new hospital, Rohman said. “This where we may have higher-level trauma services, cardiovascular services, cancer care, women’s health services.
Surrounding the hospital and medical office building, “the campus may include residential options, advanced specialties, and primary medical care, along with retail, dining, and hospitality uses,” according to Broomfield planning documents.
Rohman said that UCHealth “wants to create with that (mixed-use and) retail space a really nice destination right there on the front of Highway 7. It has really good access (at one of the major vehicular gateways to Broomfield) and really creates vibrance for the community in a lot of different ways — not just health care, but with support services as well.”
The health system “envisions a vibrant health campus bringing together a high-quality hospital, residential options, advanced specialties and primary care with retail, dining, hospitality and ample green space,” UCHealth wrote in a letter to Broomfield planners. “Talented health care clinicians will have the opportunity to live on the mixed-use development, walking to work and nearby shops and benefiting the local economy. Hospitality, dining and retail will generate tax revenue for Broomfield, while the hospital provides several hundred high-paying jobs, drawing professionals and families to move to the area and call Broomfield home.”
Whether UCHealth will be directly involved in the actual development of the mixed-use aspects of the project surrounding the hospital or will offload portions of the site to other developers remains to be determined, he said.
UCHealth leaders expect to begin assembling a development team — design firms, general contractors, engineers, etc. — for the North Campus project in the coming weeks.
In addition to the medical facilities and the mixed-use development, UCHealth is “really committed to making sure we have plenty of green spaces and trails,” Rohman said. “Approximately 30% of this land will be committed to that.”
In its letter to city planners, UCHealth wrote that the new hospital will employ “500 physicians, nurses and staff members,” a figure that could grow to about 700 within a few years of opening. The project could generate another roughly 1,000 construction jobs during the development phase.
UCHealth has an existing, albeit much smaller, hospital that already operates in Broomfield. The 40-bed UCHealth Broomfield Hospital opened in 2016 in the southwestern portion of the city, about 10 miles from the site of the proposed North Campus project.
“It had roughly 62,000 (patient) encounters last year. It is a busy, smaller hospital that we feel is essential for that western edge of the community,” Rohman said. “So (the planned new hospital) is absolutely an expansion” of UCHealth’s existing services in Broomfield, not a replacement for UCHealth Broomfield Hospital.
AdventHealth’s plans for a new Broomfield hospital
Directly south of the planned UCHealth hospital site, sits a roughly 43-acre parcel at the southwest corner Baseline Road and Interstate 25 interchange where AdventHealth has proposed building a new hospital of its own.
The five-story hospital would total 443,880 square feet, while an adjacent medical office building would be three stories and total 61,120 square feet, Broomfield planning documents show.
Conceptual plans do not include an estimate for the number of beds anticipated for the new hospital.
“The hospital is proposing to have an accessory helipad to provide for medical helicopter service to the site,” according to city planning documents.
AdventHealth’s Broomfield site is about 10 miles northeast of the AdventHealth Avista hospital in Louisville. The health system plans to build a new Avista hospital in Louisville’s Redtail Ridge mega-development that will replace the existing facility at 100 Health Park Drive.
At full buildout — likely in about 15 years — the new Avista in Redtail Ridge and its satellite medical offices could total about 800,000 square feet, with buildings that reach as high as five stories, documents submitted last year to Louisville planning staff and officials show.
AdventHealth had been under contract to purchase a roughly 40-acre tract within the Redtail property for about three years, but finalizing the deal appeared shaky at times during the project’s bumpy ride through the city approvals process, with rumors that Advent leaders were considering moving the hospital to another nearby community.
That deal was finalized last February. Boulder County real estate records show that Redtail Ridge Portfolio LLC, an entity registered to the Chicago address of Redtail master developer Sterling Bay LLC, sold the parcel to Portercare Adventist Health System, an entity registered to AdventHealth’s regional office in Greenwood Village, in mid-February 2025 for $34 million.
The site is accessed only by Health Park Drive, which dead-ends at the hospital. Over the years, the hospital has been unsuccessful in securing a new interchange off of U.S. Highway 36. Poor access adds to the time required to reach the facility, making it difficult to attract new patients.
Additionally, Avista’s landlocked location does not offer opportunities to expand, hospital officials have said, with the community missing out on potential new services because the hospital has no room to grow. A new hospital at Redtail Ridge would provide Avista with a far larger market service area, putting it closer to a wider population base.
Rachel Robinson, regional director of communications and public relations for AdventHealth, said the hospital system would share information as it moves through Broomfield’s review process.
“At AdventHealth, we thoughtfully explore ways to support growing communities by expanding access to care where it’s needed most,” she said in a statement emailed to BizWest. “Our approach is guided by our mission and a long-term commitment to those we serve. Rooted in our faith-based mission to help people feel whole in body, mind, and spirit, we approach this work in partnership with community stakeholders and local leadership and will share information through the public review process with the city of Broomfield.”
Robinson said the Broomfield project would not affect the Louisville plans.
“Any future plans would not change the work already underway,” she said. “We remain focused on moving current projects forward as planned.”
Another Broomfield hospital on the horizon?
Last month, the Broomfield City Council approved a package of tax incentives for a new specialty hospital planned near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.
“GLC Health Ventures LLC plans to build a 53,000-square-foot health facility in Broomfield for Ernest Health, representing a $30 million investment that is expected to create jobs and expand the local tax base,” according to a Broomfield City Council memo.
The hospital is planned for 9150 Metro Airport Ave.
“Ernest Health Systems is a network of rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals,” the memo said. “They focus on providing specialized medical and rehabilitative services to patients recovering from disabilities by injuries or illness, or from chronic or complex medical conditions.”
In Colorado, Texas-headquartered Ernest operates Denver Regional Rehabilitation Hospital in Thornton, Northern Colorado Long Term Acute Hospital and Northern Colorado Rehabilitation Hospital. Both of the Northern Colorado facilities are in Johnstown.
The proposed incentives package would provide “up to $300,000 in tax reimbursements, matched by the Metro District through site improvement,” according to city documents. “The agreement follows Broomfield’s established model of performance-based incentives tied to actual tax payments and investment. Overall, the project is anticipated to strengthen economic growth and accelerate property tax revenues within the district.”
— Ken Amundson and Christopher Wood added to this report.
