San Antonio could be in line for a brand-new Veterans Affairs hospital in the South Texas Medical Center, federal planning documents show. The proposed campus would cover roughly 1.6 million square feet and is expected to replace the decades-old Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital. City and health-system leaders say the project would reshape the Medical Center’s northern edge and layer in major new parking, utility and administrative infrastructure.
According to the San Antonio Report, a recent Army Corps notice describes a primary hospital facility, separate administration space, a central utility plant and two garages with about 3,000 parking spaces. The local report identifies a 50-plus-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Hamilton Wolf Road and Floyd Curl Drive, land owned by the San Antonio Medical Foundation, and notes that the site lies less than two miles north of the current Audie L. Murphy campus. Foundation president Richard Perez told the outlet that a public-comment report on the project’s environmental impact should be finalized by March and that the VA is working toward a potential completion date of 2032.
What the federal notice says
The Army Corps sources-sought posting on sam.gov casts the effort as market research and sets total Architect-Engineer capacity at up to $90 million. The document outlines planning charrettes, design-build hospital work, central utility-plant design and construction, and a ten-year task-order contract structure. It also allows roughly 30 days for firms to respond once a solicitation is issued. The Corps stresses that this is a preliminary step meant to guide future budgeting and design decisions, not a guarantee that construction will start right away.
Why it matters to veterans
The VA lists Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans’ Hospital at 7400 Merton Minter Boulevard, and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System currently serves more than 115,000 veterans. Per VA South Texas Health Care, the system includes the San Antonio inpatient campus plus clinics spread across the region, and leaders say a modern, consolidated campus could streamline training and research partnerships. Officials also point out that the Audie L. Murphy campus, which opened in 1973, is aging and could be repurposed for other VA uses if a new hospital site is secured.
Where this fits in the Medical Center
The South Texas Medical Center is already in the middle of hospital expansions and property reshuffles, and planners say traffic and infrastructure will be front of mind if the VA buys and builds on the Medical Foundation parcel. The city funded a traffic-impact study tied to broader Medical Center growth plans, which Community Impact reported, and local coverage notes that University Health and other systems are expanding nearby, driving up the need for coordinated infrastructure. That mix makes transit, parking and access planning all but mandatory if the project moves ahead.
Next steps include a public-comment period on the VA’s environmental impact statement that is expected to wrap up in March, an Army Corps procurement timeline that points toward a spring solicitation window and potential negotiations between the VA and the San Antonio Medical Foundation over the land itself. If timelines hold, construction would still take years, with officials pointing to a target completion around 2032. For veterans, nearby residents and medical partners, the coming weeks should reveal whether the Medical Center will host one of the region’s largest VA facilities or whether the existing Audie L. Murphy campus will be rebuilt in place.
