Officials confirmed Feb. 18 that the University of Texas Medical Center will be located in Northwest Austin rather than at the former Erwin Center site downtown.

“As our two institutions continued to work collaboratively over the last year, it became apparent that the proposed Erwin Center location would not be as conducive to the fully integrated, patient-centered approach that was being envisioned, and there would be limits to future growth on that,” UT Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife said at a Feb. 18 board meeting.

The new site, anchored by Dell Medical School, will be located west of the J.J. Pickle Research Campus on university-owned land in Northwest Austin, although a specific site was not confirmed. Of the several university-owned plots of land in the area, one holds The Shops at Arbor Walk, while another has part of the Braker Lane Crossing shopping center.

The medical center still plans to open in 2030, despite the new location, and will still be in partnership with MD Anderson.

There are currently no plans for the Erwin Center site, Eltife said.

“>

Diving in deeper

The UT Medical Center was first announced in summer 2023 as a “monumental” addition to downtown’s medical district, and a major new piece of UT Austin’s academic health system. The project, then estimated at $2.5 billion, was envisioned as a pair of medical towers housing an MD Anderson clinical and research cancer center and a UT Austin specialty hospital.

Following the Erwin Center’s recent demolition, groundbreaking for the UT Medical Center on the old arena property at 1701 Red River St., Austin, was expected in 2026 ahead of a 2030 opening.

However, during a November UT System board of regents meeting, Eltife announced the university was eyeing an expanded campus in Northwest Austin for what he called “one of the biggest projects of this generation.”

The UT Medical Center’s initial planned location would place it within Austin’s Innovation District already home to the Dell Seton Medical Center, UT Health Austin and UT Dell Medical School, as well as a future mixed-use redevelopment from Central Health.

What they’re saying

“This is Texas doing what only Texas can do,” Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti, UT’s senior vice president for medical affairs and the dean of Dell Medical School, said in a news release. “We have a generational opportunity to reimagine what it means to be a patient, to train future doctors, and to innovate and build for a future shaped by the greatest acceleration in knowledge and technology in human history. The potential for impact is bigger, even, than Texas. This changes the world.”