Today a 200-foot crane hoisted the final beam, covered with signatures, up to the highest floor of University Health Palo Alto Hospital, growing a new skyline on the South Side.
“We’re building more than just hospitals—we’re building a healthier, stronger South Side,” said University Health CEO Ed Banos.
Leaders, including Bexar County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, joined Banos and community members in signing the beam, part of a centuries-old topping out ceremony. The observance grounds the new health care facility in a strong construction tradition while celebrating its future of serving the people who live and work on the South Side. University Health Palo Alto Hospital and its attached medical office building are on track to open in 2027. The hospital is on the same campus as University Health Vida, a multispecialty health center and new headquarters for the University Health Institute for Public Health, which will open later this year.
“We’re not just building a hospital,” said Bexar County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, who has advocated for a new South Side hospital. “We are building opportunities for better access to care.”
Noting that other hospitals are distant enough to cause transportation challenges for an underserved population, Clay-Flores said, “many of my constituents who may tend to skip their appointments will no longer do that. So together, we are saving lives.”
The new community hospital campus will expand health care access to a long-underserved and growing area, and in doing so, is helping to create critical mass for an economic engine that will bring opportunities far beyond that access.
“This project is rooted in our mission: expanding access to health care, developing a dynamic community hospital and supporting public health on the South Side,” Banos said. “By working in close partnership with the growing Texas A&M–San Antonio campus, Toyota and JCB developments to name a few, we’re doing more than providing care—we’re creating an economic engine that fuels opportunity, drives innovation, and builds momentum for generations to come.”
New housing opportunities are also quickly sprouting nearby, including the VIDA community adjacent to the Palo Alto hospital campus.
It’s not only the jobs and services provided by University Health and other major new developments, Banos noted, it’s also the infrastructure upgrades that these developments support that will help other housing and businesses coming into the area.
“This isn’t just growth. It’s transformation—from the ground up, for all of us,” he said.
