Children’s Mercy Announces $1B Tower at Adele Hall Campus

Posted April 29, 2025

Children’s Mercy has announced plans to build a new $1 billion patient tower at its Adele Hall campus in downtown Kansas City.

The tower will expand Children’s Mercy’s total capacity by 25-30%. The Children’s Mercy Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) will move into the new tower when it is completed, along with an expansion of its Emergency Department.

Enabling work is expected to begin this fall, to complete the project in 2031, according to a Wednesday release.

Additionally, the new tower will feature a state-of-the-art surgical center with future-ready technology and robotics. The space will also include a new lobby, more natural light, green space and patient/family healing areas.

Exterior rendering of the new acute care tower lobby area at Children’s Mercy Adele Hall campus. Photo credit: Children’s Mercy.

Children’s Mercy said this new addition to its campus is in response to an increasing demand for highly specialized pediatric care, according to the release. The hospital cited third-party assessments by Deloitte and HDR that claim within five years, existing capacity will meet only 67% of projected total bed needs and 40% of projected Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) demand.

“Demand is already pressing our capacity, so this is about readiness and responsibility. When a child in our community needs an ICU bed, and minutes matter, we must have the space and the very best teams ready to act,” Children’s Mercy president and CEO, Alejandro Quiroga, said in the release. “This investment protects our ability to say ‘yes’ to the next child who needs us, while strengthening the expertise, compassion, and advanced care families count on. It’s the same obligation we’ve carried for 129 years, and we’re building for what comes next.”

The project cost will be supported by private-public investments built on community philanthropy and long-standing collaboration. Children’s Mercy has announced several other expansion efforts in the past few months. In March, it partnered with a Massachusetts-based Vima Therapeutics to commercialize an oral therapeutic for dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Children’s Mercy will also be expanding its Overland Park campus with the addition of a nearly 117,000 square foot building, expected to open in summer 2027.