Hospital foundation asks O.C. to ‘Boldly Hoag’ in $300M campaign for Irvine campus

To call Hoag’s effort to expand services and offerings in the city of Irvine “bold” is a bit of an understatement.

In the span of just 12 years, the healthcare network not only opened a 154-bed hospital on the site of the former Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center on Sand Canyon Avenue — transforming it into Hoag Hospital Irvine — but also built a 150,000-square-foot heath center nearby with primary and specialty care services.

Officials in June 2021 purchased the property from Irvine-based landlord Healthpeak Properties, Inc. for $226 million.

A rendering of the drop-off area of an East Pavilion at a Hoag campus in Irvine that will be named the Sun Family Campus.

(Courtesy of Hoag Hospital Foundation)

Now Hoag is taking another bold step to transform its Irvine holdings into a “new healthcare destination” and is inviting supporters and philanthropists to be a part of the largest capital campaign in its 70-year history.

Officials on Thursday kicked off “Boldly Hoag,” a mission to raise $300 million by 2025. The effort will build off of a $50-million gift from billionaires David and Diana Sun, of the Sun Foundation, announced in March. In recognition of that contribution, Hoag’s Irvine campus will be named the Sun Family Campus.

Occupying nearly a full city block, the expanded campus will include six new buildings, comprising 155 inpatient beds, eight operating rooms and 120,000 square feet of outpatient space, along with significant renovations of the site’s existing facilities.

A rendering of a third-floor deck in a Women’s Health Courtyard being proposed for a new Hoag Irvine Campus, the subject of a $300 million capital campaign launched Thursday.

(Courtesy of Hoag Hospital Foundation)

Two new specialty hospitals will anchor the campus, one for the Women’s Health Institute and another that will house the Hoag Family Cancer Institute and the Digestive Health Institute.

“This is a huge moment in Hoag history,” President and Chief Executive Robert Braithwaite said Thursday, indicating officials have spent a decade planning the build-out of the Irvine property. “The need was evident as soon as we opened the doors in 2010 and the community embraced our physicians, staff and services.”

Braithwaite added that once construction is complete, Hoag will have invested more than $1 billion on the campus.

Expansion efforts will advance three initiatives: elevating the patient experience, recruiting and retaining the nation’s top healthcare professionals and defining, and building upon, the future of health.

Areas on the campus will blend high-tech features with a personal touch, including wellness-enhancing indoor and outdoor spaces, meditation gardens and an overall patient-focused experience.

With early support from the community, the nonprofit Hoag Hospital Foundation has already raised $148.5 million toward its ultimate $300-million goal, which it hopes to reach by 2025.

The first phase of construction for a new Hoag Irvine Campus off Sand Canyon Road began last year and should be done by 2025.

(Kevin Warn)

“Thanks to several visionary donors, the campaign is already garnering remarkable momentum and will enable Hoag to continue increasing innovative healthcare for more communities,” Foundation President Flynn Andrizzi said Thursday.

In a release issued Thursday, Melinda Hoag Smith, whose family helped found Hoag Hospital, said she admired Hoag’s vision for the future.

“My parents and grandparents would be so proud to see what Hoag has achieved and what it will continue to achieve as a result of its bold pledge to build and deliver an innovative healthcare system that is designed for all county residents, at all stages of their lives.”

For more, visit BoldlyHoag.org.

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