BayCare reveals first look at $650M children’s hospital

BayCare has released the first renderings of its future Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s, a freestanding, state-of-the-art pediatric hospital scheduled to open on the St. Joseph’s Hospital campus in Tampa in 2030. 

The hospital network released preliminary designs Thursday of the exterior of its new pediatric hospital, which is expected to cost more than $650 million. The building gets its name from the Pagidipati family, which donated $50 million to BayCare for the project in April 2024 — one of the largest philanthropic donations made across the country that year and one of the largest ever given in the Tampa Bay region, according to BayCare.

Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s will succeed the current St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital — the largest provider of pediatric health care in the Tampa Bay region providing inpatient and outpatient care to thousands of children each year along with BayCare Kids. The new building is designed to grow those services in a “vibrant, welcoming” environment built specifically for pediatric patients and their families, the release says. 

“Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s will transform pediatric health care across our region — pairing innovation with the compassionate, family-centered care our community has come to expect from BayCare,” BayCare President and CEO Stephanie Conners says in the release.

Courtesy image

BayCare worked with architects at Page, now Stantec, to ensure that every element of the hospital reflects the children and families it will serve. The building itself will have a bold, multi-color exterior illuminated by a dynamic lighting system that changes with the seasons and holidays. The vibrant, color-changing features are meant to be a “subtle reminder that this is a place of hope and recovery,” the release says. 

Inside the building, patients and their families will be met with a first-class clinical environment that also embodies “warmth and playfulness,” the release says, with spaces encouraging “comfort, togetherness and discovery.” The hospital will be full of family-friendly features such as an intuitive wayfinding system, welcoming common areas and environments designed to reduce stress. The goal, the release says, is a “hospital that feels less like an institution and more like a destination for care.”

BayCare currently operates 16 hospitals and other medical offices in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties, and recently announced a new facility in Manatee County. It’s St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital is a 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. 

BayCare had $1.16 billion revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to public tax filings.