Baylor Scott & White Breaks Ground on $73M Temple Tower Expansion
Three additional floors will create shell space for future growth and a fully fitted clinical floor with 28 Universal Care Rooms.
Baylor Scott & White has marked the start of a vertical expansion at its Temple medical campus with a September 30 groundbreaking ceremony. Local reporting from KWTX describes three additional floors for the hospital’s South Tower.
The corresponding state registration, listed as the BSW Temple CAM Tower Expansion, carries a $73 million construction estimate and 98,700 square feet of additional space at 2401 South 31st Street.
Project at a Glance
- Filed construction estimate:
- $73 million
- Registered area:
- 98,700 SF
- Expansion:
- Levels 6, 7 and 8
- Filed completion:
- May 31, 2028
Shell space and clinical fit-out
Levels 6 and 7 are registered as shell space. Level 8 is planned for full build-out, including 28 Universal Care Rooms and supporting clinical areas. The distinction means the three floors should not all be described as fully equipped patient accommodation at handover.
Providing unfinished floors alongside a fitted clinical level allows the expansion to accommodate future needs, although subsequent fit-out budgets and dates would require separate confirmation.
Part of a wider campus program
The tower project sits within broader Temple campus improvements that include additional helipad capacity. The $73 million estimate refers to the registered tower scope, rather than every improvement across the campus.
TDLR lists May 31, 2028 as the completion date. Its August 1, 2026 scheduled start predates the September ceremony, illustrating why a ceremonial groundbreaking and a filed construction schedule should be reported separately.
A larger modernization effort
The tower expansion is one element of a wider investment in Temple. KWTX reports that the combined projects, including work planned at the medical education building, total a little over $200 million, with the wider program aiming for summer 2028. That broader figure is separate from the $73 million construction estimate attached to the tower’s state registration.
The same reporting places the expansion in the context of growing demand for care. Increasing the available building space while leaving two floors as shells creates room for later clinical decisions. It does not establish the eventual number of beds or the service mix on those unfinished levels.
Building upward on an operating campus
A vertical addition has a different delivery setting from a new hospital on an empty site. TCH’s construction assessment is that work above an existing tower will require coordination with the operating campus, including access, service connections and the transition between new and existing spaces. The sources reviewed do not set out the detailed construction logistics or identify planned clinical closures.
The next useful milestones will be progress on the added structure, enclosure and clinical fit-out, followed by the preparation needed to bring the completed floor into use. A building-completion target and a date for treating the first patients are separate measures. The available filing establishes the planned physical scope, while later hospital updates will clarify how that space enters service.