BayCare has begun construction on the Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s, a freestanding, state-of-the-art facility scheduled to open in 2030, designed to succeed the current St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital — Tampa Bay’s largest provider of pediatric health care. BayCare expects to invest more than $650 million to build the new hospital, which represents one of the most significant healthcare investments planned in Tampa Bay over the next decade. The new hospital will be named Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s in honour of a transformative $50 million gift from the Pagidipati family of Tampa — one of the largest donations in Tampa Bay history and celebrated as one of 2024’s largest gifts in America. BayCare worked with architects at Page, now Stantec, to ensure that every element of the hospital reflects the children and families it will serve, with the building featuring a bold, multi-colour exterior illuminated by a dynamic lighting system that changes with the seasons and holidays. The new facility is part of BayCare’s strategic commitment to expand access to high-quality, specialised paediatric care across West Central Florida. St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation is currently partnering with the Pagidipati family and other local philanthropists to accelerate the project, drive innovation and pursue the greatest impact for future generations. The project is the centrepiece of a broader BayCare expansion push that includes BayCare Hospital Manatee, multiple new freestanding emergency departments, and the BayCare Academic Health and Research Corridor, positioning the health system as West Central Florida’s dominant academic healthcare provider heading into the 2030s.
The Current BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital
BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital is home to the renowned Bayless Cancer Institute; the Patel Children’s Heart Institute, a leading destination for congenital heart care in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh; the 24-hour Steinbrenner Emergency/Trauma Center for Children, staffed by the region’s largest team of board-certified paediatric emergency physicians; and the Daniel J. Plasencia, MD, Children’s Chronic Complex Clinic, a national model for legislation supporting similar programmes across the country. That clinical pedigree is the context within which the $650 million investment must be understood. BayCare is not simply replacing a tired building; it is constructing the physical infrastructure to support a paediatric programme that is already operating at a level of sub-speciality complexity that rivals tertiary children’s hospitals in much larger markets. The Tampa Bay region’s rapid population growth, with Hillsborough County alone adding tens of thousands of residents annually, has created a supply problem in high-acuity paediatric care that the existing St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital building, designed for a different era of healthcare delivery, cannot solve with renovation alone. The paediatric hospital replacement market across Florida is becoming increasingly active: Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami continues expanding its network of outpatient centres, Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando is advancing its capacity investments, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s in St. Petersburg is growing its academic programme. This broader wave of healthcare reinvestment is also evident in Tampa’s adult acute-care sector, where the ongoing US$550 million Tampa General Hospital expansion plan is advancing as part of a parallel strategy to scale critical medical infrastructure in response to the region’s accelerating population growth. BayCare’s response with a purpose-built, freestanding, $650 million facility on the existing St. Joseph’s campus is a strategic commitment to anchor paediatric tertiary care in the Tampa Bay market at a scale that is difficult for competitors to replicate. The Stantec-designed building, with its child-centred spatial logic, seasonal lighting and interior environments calibrated to reduce stress and support family togetherness, reflects the current best practice in evidence-based paediatric design, a field that has evolved significantly since the building it will replace was constructed.
Design Concept, Clinical Programme and Interior Environment
- Freestanding, purpose-built paediatric hospital replacing the existing St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital on the same campus
- Multi-storey building with a bold, multi-colour exterior featuring a dynamic lighting system that changes with the seasons and holidays
- Architects: Page (now Stantec) — responsible for the full architectural and design programme
- Interior design principles: child-centred spatial logic, intuitive wayfinding, welcoming common areas, environments designed to reduce stress and support healing
- Family-friendly features throughout: togetherness spaces, discovery environments and comfort-oriented design
- Goal: a hospital that functions less like a clinical institution and more like a destination for care, where children feel safe, inspired and hopeful
- Clinical programme to include advanced paediatric specialties including cancer (Bayless Cancer Institute), congenital heart care (Patel Children’s Heart Institute, in partnership with UPMC/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh), emergency/trauma (Steinbrenner Emergency/Trauma Center for Children), and the Daniel J. Plasencia, MD, Children’s Chronic Complex Clinic
- Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center, the highest designation awarded by the American College of Surgeons, and one of only 55 in the United States
- Paediatric residency programme growth embedded in the project’s academic medicine ambitions
Project Fact Sheet
- Project Name: Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s
- Owner/Operator: BayCare Health System
- Location: St. Joseph’s Hospital Campus, Tampa, Florida
- Project Type: Freestanding replacement paediatric hospital (greenfield on existing campus)
- Total Investment: more than $650 million
- Architect: Page (now Stantec) — responsible for design and architecture
- Naming Gift: $50 million from the Pagidipati family of Tampa (Sidd Pagidipati, Rahul Pagidipati, Srujani Pagidipati) — one of the largest philanthropic gifts in Tampa Bay history; recognised as one of 2024’s largest charitable gifts in America
- Philanthropic Campaign: St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation, partnering with the Pagidipati family and other local philanthropists
- Expected Opening: 2030
- Predecessor Hospital: St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital — Tampa Bay’s largest provider of paediatric healthcare, currently serving thousands of children inpatient and outpatient annually
- Successor Role: Regional hub for advanced paediatric care across West Central Florida and beyond
- System Context: BayCare is a not-for-profit academic health system operating 16 hospitals across Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties; 2025 operating revenue: $6.97 billion; workforce: nearly 34,000 team members
- Companion Projects: BayCare Hospital Manatee ($548 million, opening 2028); BayCare Academic Health and Research Corridor; multiple new freestanding emergency departments across the region
Project Team
- Owner/Client: BayCare Health System — a leading not-for-profit academic health system headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, providing services at 16 hospitals and hundreds of locations across West Central Florida; the region’s largest healthcare system by hospital count, workforce and paediatric volume
- President and CEO, BayCare Health System: Stephanie Conners — executive sponsor of the Pagidipati Children’s Hospital project; described the new facility as transforming paediatric healthcare across the region while building on St. Joseph’s legacy of compassionate, family-centred care
- President, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospitals: Sarah Naumowich — clinical lead for the hospital replacement project; articulated the vision for elevating every aspect of care through state-of-the-art child-focused design and advanced clinical programmes across a wide range of paediatric specialties
- Architect: Page (now Stantec) — US-based architectural and engineering firm; responsible for the full design programme of the Pagidipati Children’s Hospital, including the multi-colour facade, dynamic lighting concept and child-centred interior environment
- Naming Philanthropists: The Pagidipati Family — Tampa business leader and philanthropist Sidd Pagidipati, along with siblings Rahul and Srujani Pagidipati; the $50 million gift celebrates their parents’ legacy as healthcare providers and represents one of the largest charitable commitments in Tampa Bay history
- Fundraising Partner: St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation — the philanthropic arm responsible for the capital campaign, engaging the Pagidipati family and the broader Tampa Bay philanthropic community to accelerate delivery and fund clinical innovation
- Academic Partnership: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh — longstanding clinical partner for the Patel Children’s Heart Institute’s congenital heart care programme, which will continue and expand in the new facility
