A rendering of Kaiser Permanente’s proposed new hospital in San Francisco. If approved, the 300-bed facility would be built at Geary Boulevard and Divisadero Street in the Anza Vista neighborhood, across the street from the health system’s existing hospital at 2425 Geary Blvd.
Perkins & Will/Courtesy of Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente’s current hospital on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco’s Anza Vista neighborhood would be converted to a medical office building as part of the health giant’s proposal to build a major new hospital across the street.
Courtesy of Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente has proposed building a major new hospital in San Francisco that, if approved, would replace its current medical center and be the health care giant’s first new hospital in the city in more than 70 years.
If the project gains city and state approval, it would convert the existing Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center at 2425 Geary Blvd. in the Anza Vista neighborhood to medical office buildings and build a new hospital across the street, at Geary and Divisadero Street, by 2033.
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The new facility would mark a major expansion in real estate and capacity, with 300 private patient beds in roughly 623,000 square feet, a newly expanded emergency department and a new parking garage at 350 St. Joseph’s Ave. The current facility, which opened in 1954, has 239 semi-private beds in about 367,000 square feet.
“We’re really excited about the possibility of doing this,” said Abhishek Dosi, senior vice president and area manager of the Kaiser Permanente Golden Gate Service Area. “We’re at the beginning of the beginning.”
Kaiser’s two other locations in San Francisco — in Mission Bay and the French Campus in the Inner Richmond, which house outpatient specialty and primary care — would be unaffected by the proposed new hospital. The current hospital on Geary would remain open, with full services, during construction of the new one.
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The site of the proposed hospital is currently a Kaiser medical office and two Kaiser parking garages. They would have to be torn down.
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Dosi said he does not have a cost estimate for the project because Kaiser has not yet gotten full approvals to move forward with permits and construction. The city’s planning department and board of supervisors as well as the state Department of Health Care Access and Information (formerly OSHPD) would have to approve the construction.
Kaiser intends to submit proposals to the planning department by the end of May, obtain approvals and conduct public hearings in the first half of 2028, and begin construction in the second half of 2028.
At a community meeting Monday at the Geary campus where Kaiser leaders described the project, some residents who live in the neighborhood expressed concerns about the height of the proposed hospital — 14 stories, compared to the current facility’s nine stories.
That would cast a long shadow on Geary Boulevard and make it harder for greenery to grow, and might lead to more wind at the street level, said Mary McFadden, who lives a few blocks away from the current facility.
McFadden said she’d like more information about how the new facility would benefit patients and the area, and why Kaiser is proposing to increase the size of the hospital more dramatically than the number of beds.
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“How does this really serve patients and the neighborhood?” she said.
Noni Richen, who also lives a few blocks away from the current hospital, said she supports the plan because it would make better use of underutilized space in the area, such as a lot that used to be a gas station and was later made into a garden.
“It’s attractive but not the best use for property,” she said.
“I’m excited about (the project). It will bring people connected to the hospital, some new businesses, perhaps housing construction. I think it’ll bring visibility to the neighborhood.”
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The new hospital is designed to be all-electric, said Brandon Kent, managing director of Perkins & Will, the architect for the project. It would be the third all-electric Kaiser hospital, after San Jose and Sacramento. The Oakland-based nonprofit health system serves 12.6 million patients in nine states and the District of Columbia, including about 245,000 in San Francisco.
“We’re excited about the jobs (construction) will create in the city, the contribution to the economic rebound it’ll make for the city of San Francisco,” Dosi said. “We’ve been proud to provide care for San Franciscans for 70 years in this hospital. This marks a commitment we have to the city of San Francisco and to continue to be a good partner and trusted provider of health care for generations to come.”