Denver’s major health systems went into expansion mode in 2025, adding more than three-quarters of a billion dollars’ worth of new towers, urgent care centers and outpatient clinics. The health-care construction clustered in parts of metro Denver that have seen above-average population growth si nce 2020, and which state demographers project will continue to grow over the next decade. And hospitals are building with the expectation those areas will continue to grow — three of the new towers going up have floors with no immediate use planned, including one where unfinished space accounts for nearly half of the project. Hospital systems and Kaiser Permanente Colorado reported 13 projects in various stages of construction this year. They only detailed costs for eight, which totaled $824 million. Since the projects without cost information include a hospital tower and extensive work on three outpatient clinics, the actual total likely approaches $1 billion. Colorado doesn’t have any way of quantifying whether areas need more hospital beds, and health systems generally described their recent projects as bringing specific types of care closer to communities, rather than relieving a crunch on their existing facilities. That falls in line with how hospitals generally focus on expanding, consultant Allan Baumgarten said: They offer outpatient and emergency services in growing, well-off communities to start building patient loyalty. “You want to create lots of front doors to your system,” he said. Douglas County in particular saw a health care building boom: AdventHealth started work on an expansion of its Parker hospital and a new freestanding emergency room in Castle Rock, while UCHealth built an addition to its Highlands Ranch hospital, Kaiser Permanente expanded its Parker offices and CommonSpirit Health began preliminary work on a campus in Meridian, an unincorporated area near Lone Tree. Other major projects in the metro area this year included a new tower at HCA HealthOne’s Mountain Ridge hospital in Thornton, a cardiology center at AdventHealth Littleton, an urgent care center with primary care offices that UCHealth is opening in Green Valley Ranch and a campus AdventHealth is building in the Aurora Highlands planned community, which its spokeswoman said will eventually grow into a new hospital. A new operating room at UCHealth Highlands Ranch on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) UCHealth’s existing primary care clinic in Green Valley Ranch was already full, and Highlands Ranch Hospital hit its 10-year growth projections within four years, said Merle Taylor, president of the system’s community hospitals in the Denver area, including Highlands Ranch, Broomfield and Longs Peak. The system aims for its Aurora and Highlands Ranch hospitals to run about 85% full, but sometimes they fill every bed during flu season, he said. “We want to make sure we’re meeting (residents’) needs and their demands in our communities,” he said. Expansions reflect population growth The locations where health systems built this year at least partly reflect population trends. Douglas County had the second-largest increase in population since 2020, adding almost 34,000 residents, according to the Colorado State Demography Office. Adams County came in third, with a population increase of about 23,000. Weld County had the largest increase. The state demographer’s office projected Douglas and Adams counties will remain in the top three for the next decade, with each adding about 69,000 residents by 2035. The office noted in November that Colorado faces challenges as fewer immigrants come and more are deported or choose to leave the country, while migration from other states slows because of high housing costs. The southern end of the metro area is growing significantly, creating an increase in demand for care, but AdventHealth is looking at opportunities on multiple sides of Denver, spokeswoman Rachel Robinson said. The emergency room and urgent care center south of downtown Castle Rock won’t replace the hospital on the north side of town, Robinson said. The hospital will handle complex cases, while people who need immediate care for routine injuries and illnesses can save about 15 minutes of driving time, she said. “It’s simply bringing care closer to where people live,” she said in an email. Kaiser Permanente estimated the number of patients using the Parker clinic as their primary medical home has increased by about 3,000 since 2020. The system bought a piece of land in Parker back in 2009 to eventually build its own site instead of leasing an office, said Michael Ramseier, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado. The new Parker offices opened over the summer. “Obviously, Colorado’s grown significantly, and we want to make sure we’re capturing that proportional growth,” he said. The system is also replacing outdated buildings in Lakewood and Westminster, while expanding the populations they can serve, Ramseier said. A new clinic and urgent care center is going up next to the existing building in Lakewood, which wasn’t the easiest place to navigate after three expansions over multiple decades, he said. The new Lakewood offices will open in January, but the Westminster project, which will add an urgent care facility and ambulatory surgery center, won’t wrap up until 2028. “We’ve got a huge population there (in Lakewood), it’s one of our biggest, but it was a 50-year-old property that needed upgrades,” he said. Health systems built with an eye toward continued growth this year. AdventHealth’s new Parker tower has three floors without an immediate use planned, and UCHealth’s Highlands Ranch tower has two. They likely won’t stay empty for long, though, Taylor said. “Some time over the next three years, we’re going to need those,” he said. In HCA HealthOne Mountain Ridge’s expansion, about 17,000 of the 36,000 square feet are “shelled” space that it could build out in the future. Shelled space has outside walls and windows to enclose it, but doesn’t have interior walls or full utilities. When constructing something like a new tower, which would expand up instead of out, building space you might not immediately need is cheaper than going back and adding floors later, said Ryan Thorton, president and CEO at HCA HealthONE Mountain Ridge. The Colorado Hospital Association estimated demand in the hospital’s service area grew about 12.5% over the last four years, and the hospital needed more beds for general medical and surgical patients, he said. “With continued growth in service needed in northern Denver, we anticipate the 24 additional beds in 2026 will ensure we have adequate capacity to treat the growing population, but are prepared to expand as necessary,” Thorton said in an email. Adding services, increasing income The new construction fits with an overall pattern of health systems around Denver increasing their incomes by adding services to their existing campuses, buying independent hospitals, or building new facilities, said Baumgarten, the consultant. Growth in freestanding emergency rooms has slowed down after a building boom about a decade ago, but interest in ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care and outpatient offices is picking up, he said. Those facilities tend to be cheaper to run than inpatient hospitals, and patients increasingly choose them, or are nudged by their insurance to do so. Hospitals tend to choose high-visibility locations near major highways in areas where most people have either job-based insurance or Medicare, Baumgarten said. Workers continue construction at UCHealth Highlands Ranch on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) In many ways, the construction in Douglas County fits that pattern. UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital is close to C-470 and AdventHealth Parker sits near E-470, while the new AdventHealth freestanding emergency room will be just off Interstate 25. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Douglas County was the wealthiest in the state as of 2023, with a median household income of about $146,000 — meaning half of households earn more and half earn less. Of the nine counties with median incomes over $100,000, Douglas County was the only one to grow by more than 4,000 people since the 2020 census. “You want to capture as much of that affluent and well-insured population as possible, and you want to be early to get there,” because people tend to develop loyalty to doctors and hospitals, Baumgarten said. Colorado doesn’t require hospitals to prove that an area needs additional medical facilities, and local zoning boards typically welcome hospitals as a source of high-paying jobs and a way to make their communities more attractive to potential residents, Baumgarten said. Bond market investors could put the brakes on a project if they won’t buy because they’re convinced it won’t generate sufficient returns to repay them, he said. Baumgarten said he’s skeptical of new construction that isn’t in medically underserved areas, because patients and their insurance have to cover a hospital’s fixed costs, including any bonds that went to build it. “I’m of the belief that all of this construction has to be paid for,” he said. Hospitals have to be prepared for growth in their communities so people aren’t left waiting for care while they try to catch up, said Dan Mager, spokesman for the Colorado Hospital Association. Typically, they do a deep analysis of future care needs before investing, he said. “Standing up new resources for a community is an expensive endeavor with ongoing costs — so it requires thoughtful consideration — and indicates there is a need right now or an expected need in the near future,” Mager said in a statement. How hositpals decide when to expand Defining whether an area is underserved can be tricky. The federal government has designations for areas with shortages of primary care, mental health and dental providers, but not for hospital services. The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which compiles annual reports on hospital finances, doesn’t have a way of measuring demand for hospital services in communities, other than collecting information about what community members identified as important in regular needs assessments hospitals must perform, spokesman Marc Williams said. In general, policymakers like to see about three general hospital beds for every 1,000 people in an area, but communities with older and sicker residents may need more, said Dr. Richard Leuchter, an assistant professor at University of California, Los Angeles. But when hospitals are deciding whether to expand, they rely on more complex formulas to determine how many beds they need to keep their emergency departments from backing up, he said. Related Articles In a tumultuous year, US health policy has been dramatically reshaped under RFK Jr. Northglenn assisted living staff neglected resident before her death, lawsuit alleges Coloradans snap up over-the-counter naloxone while hospitals offer the overdose-reversal drug to more patients Food distributor recalls ground beef from Colorado for E. coli contamination A Fort Collins family is trying to raise millions to test gene therapy that could help kids trapped in bodies they can’t move Laypeople can’t easily reproduce those calculations without insider data, and some easier-to-find metrics, such as occupancy rates, don’t tell the full story, Leuchter said. For example, a hospital that performs a large number of outpatient surgeries might show up as 50% full, when the truth is that every bed is full during the day and almost all are empty overnight, he said. Weldy Feazell, director of economic development for the town of Parker, said she hasn’t heard about residents struggling to get hospital care, though it was probably time for a facility upgrade, since the AdventHealth hospital went up about two decades ago. She has heard some complaints about difficulty finding a primary care doctor, which the Kaiser Permanente expansion will help address, she said. Parker has added about 7,800 residents since 2020, putting it sixth for growth behind Aurora, Denver, unincorporated Douglas County, Castle Rock and Erie. As the community has grown, health systems have seen an opportunity to let people get specialized care, such as cancer treatment, without driving to Denver, Feazell said. After all, most people don’t love spending time on Interstate 25, especially if they’re feeling a bit off after a procedure, she said. “They’re just trying to find ways to bring it closer to home for people,” she said. Health system construction projects in metro Denver in 2025 AdventHealth Castle Rock Crystal Valley: Adding a nearly 24,000-square-foot facility with a new freestanding emergency room and urgent care facility with primary care offices on site, at a cost of $28 million. Opening in fall 2026. Parker Hospital: Adding a 186,000-square-foot tower with four operating rooms, 30 general patient beds, 30 beds for cardiac and stroke patients and two heart procedure rooms, at a cost of $300 million. Opening in February 2027. Littleton Hospital: Added a 143,000-square-foot facility providing heart and stroke care, with spaces for surgeries, less-invasive procedures and cardiac intensive care, at a cost of $150 million. Opened in August. Aurora Highlands: Building a new campus, starting with an 88,000-square-foot building that includes a freestanding emergency room, an imaging center and 27 exam rooms, at a cost of $81 million. Opening in September 2026. CommonSpirit Health Meridian Campus: 42 acres of land. The system hasn’t released specifics about its plans for the site. Work began in the third quarter of the year. St. Anthony North Hospital: Added a 133,000-square-foot tower with 30 beds primarily for surgical patients, a cancer center, a 25-bed intensive care unit, 30 beds primarily for cardiac patients and two operating rooms, 18 postpartum beds and 30 general beds. Units opened gradually between August 2024 and December 2025. CommonSpirit didn’t state the cost for the expansion. Denver Health Westside Family Health Center: Constructing a new 82,500-square-foot building to replace the existing center, with primary care, dentistry, obstetrics, physical therapy and imaging, at a cost of $100 million. Opening in 2027. Southeast Medical Center: Renovating a 14,700-square-foot leased space with 16 exam rooms for older adults to get primary and specialty care, a pharmacy and a lab, at a cost of $9.5 million. Opening in 2026. HCA HealthOne Mountain Ridge Hospital: Added a 36,000-square-foot tower, with 24 new beds, at a cost of $36.5 million. Opened in August. Kaiser Permanente Parker Medical Offices: Built a new clinic that is about 7,000 square feet larger than the previous one, with eight new exam rooms and the ability to do more video visits. Opened in July. Kaiser Permanente declined to share the cost of its new construction. Lakewood Medical Center: Built a 116,500-square-foot replacement for the existing offices, with primary care, physical therapy, a pharmacy and an urgent care center. Opening in January 2026. Kaiser Permanente declined to share the cost of its new construction. UCHealth Green Valley Ranch Medical Center: Added a 12,000-square-foot facility with primary care offices, an urgent care center, physical therapy and imaging. The building already existed, but UCHealth paid to convert it to a health care space, at a cost the system didn’t release. Opened in spring 2025. Highlands Ranch Hospital: Adding a 119,000-square-foot tower and 75,000-square-foot medical office building, with 14 emergency room beds, new operating rooms and labs for cardiac procedures and expansions of the cancer center and neonatal intensive care unit, at a cost of $119 million. Partially opening in February. Intermountain Health The health network didn’t provide detailed information, but said it expanded its cancer center at Saint Joseph Hospital and leased a space for a new clinic near Empower Field at Mile High. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get health news sent straight to your inbox. ...read more read less