AUSTIN -- A major construction project began Tuesday in downtown Austin. Crews broke ground on the Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas.
Along with the Dell Medical School, which is being built right across the street at 15th and Red River streets, the buildings will make up a whole new medical campus. The Seton Medical Center will include classrooms, faculty and physician offices and research facilities.
The hospital, owned and operated by Seton Healthcare, will open in 2017. Seton has invested $245 million in the project and plans to raise another $50 million through philanthropy, one of the largest goals for a single, nongovernmental building campaigns in Austin's history.
Seton said the 211-bed teaching hospital has four philosophical cornerstones that will guide its operations. They aim to improve medical care, treat patients and families with respect and dignity, educate the next generation of clinicians and innovate through both practice and research.
The combination of a new teaching hospital and medical school is expected to create 15,000 new jobs, not including construction jobs. About 60 percent of those jobs will require two years of college or a training certificate.
