The University of Utah has received a $75 million gift from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation to build a new 800,000-square-foot hospital and medical campus in West Valley City.
The historic gift will enable the university to construct the first off-campus inpatient hospital in its 175-year history. The project will anchor an $855 million university initiative that will increase healthcare access for the more than 725,000 residents living west of I-15, an area that sees shorter life expectancy and higher rates of diseases such as diabetes and heart-related illnesses compared to other neighborhoods.
The new health campus will feature approximately 100 hospital beds as well as outpatient clinics in specialties such as heart care, orthopedics, women’s health, pediatrics, general internal medicine, and urgent care. The clinics are expected to serve more than 341,000 outpatient visits annually. The campus is projected to create over 2,000 new jobs in the West Valley area.
Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin this summer, with completion of the multi-specialty health clinic expected in 2028, and the additional hospital rooms in 2029.
“This groundbreaking investment continues the Eccles family’s extraordinary legacy of expanding health care access and education across Utah,” said Taylor Randall, president of the University of Utah, in a news release. “For 60 years, the Eccles family has offered both unwavering leadership and financial support for excellence in health care throughout the state.”
In 1965, a gift from Spencer S. Eccles helped establish the University of Utah’s medical library, and George S. Eccles chaired the first fundraising campaign to expand the University of Utah Hospital in 1975. In 2021, the Eccles family’s foundations made one of the largest gifts in the university’s history — a $110 million donation to the university’s medical school, which was subsequently named the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.
“We are so grateful to the Eccles family for their leadership in expanding access to U of U Health’s outstanding medical care, ensuring more west-side communities have the high-quality health care they deserve,” added Randall.
“As a family and as a Foundation, we are so thrilled about this project because this community — right here in our Salt Lake Valley — has not had access to the kind of world-class medical care that they deserve,” said Spencer F. Eccles, chairman and CEO of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation.
Eccles added that the family hoped “that this hospital and health campus will become an indispensable community resource, a hub for superior health care, education and training, and expanded economic opportunity. This campus will be a win-win-win for those living in West Valley and all along the Wasatch Front for years to come.”
About the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation has awarded nearly $1 billion in grants since 1982 to a range of causes in Utah and the Intermountain West. Its grants focus on several areas, including arts and culture, education, health and wellness, and preservation and conservation.
Spencer Fox Eccles is the former chairman and CEO of banking company First Security Corporation, which had been founded by his uncles in the 1920’s and was acquired for $2.9 billion by Wells Fargo in 2000. He received his bachelor’s degree in banking and finance from the University of Utah in 1956, where he also served as the captain of the university’s ski team. After completing a tour of military service, he earned a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Business.
Over the years, the Eccles family and its foundations have made numerous multi-million dollar gifts to the University of Utah, including for the David S. Eccles School of Business, the health sciences library, the university’s alumni facility, and Rice-Eccles Stadium.