North Las Vegas has narrowed its search for a long-awaited acute care hospital down to two finalist health systems, with city leaders hoping to lock in a deal within 90 days for a 135-acre medical campus near the southwest corner of Pecos Road and the 215 Beltway. The city of nearly 300,000 residents has long wanted a full-service hospital of its own, and this latest step advances efforts to develop one.
According to KSNV, North Las Vegas is now selecting an anchor health system for the site, which sits directly across from the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System Medical Center. Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown said, per the same report, that her top priority as mayor was to see a full-service hospital built in North Las Vegas. The city is working with Cambridge Development Services on the project and expects to reach an agreement with one of the two finalist hospital groups within roughly three months.
The push to build on this particular parcel has been a long time coming. North Las Vegas City Council first designated the 135-acre site for hospital development back in 2021, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That early vision didn't pan out as planned: Salt Lake City-based Pacific Group had proposed a sprawling $4.5 billion to $5 billion development called Helios, but when that project collapsed, the city repurchased the land for $52.95 million in 2024. The council then voted that same year to spend up to $500,000 hiring Cambridge Development Services to draft a new master plan for the property.
Why North Las Vegas Still Lacks a Hospital of Its Own
Despite its size, North Las Vegas has long relied on a single major acute care facility to serve its population. North Vista Hospital, a 217-bed community hospital operated by Prime Healthcare that has been open since 1959, remains the city's primary full-service hospital, according to North Vista Hospital. Dignity Health also runs a 32-bed neighborhood micro-hospital in the city, per the Nevada Patient Protection Commission, but that facility offers a narrower scope of services than a full acute care center.
The gap is part of a broader statewide pattern. A 2023 report from the Nevada Patient Protection Commission found Nevada had roughly 2.1 licensed community hospital beds per 1,000 residents, a figure that has consistently ranked the state near the bottom nationally for hospital capacity. Meanwhile, North Las Vegas had more than 282,000 residents by mid-2023, according to the City of North Las Vegas.
A Campus Built Around the VA
Part of the appeal of the Pecos Road site is its neighbor. The VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System Medical Center opened across the street in 2012 and operates a 90-bed inpatient facility, but it refers an estimated $200 million in outpatient procedures to outside providers every year, per Showcase. Placing a new civilian hospital directly across from the VA campus could allow the future anchor health system to capture some of that outward referral volume.
Beyond the hospital itself, KSNV reports the broader medical campus could eventually include additional medical buildings, retail, and even hotels. Surrounding Clark County is already home to established players including Valley Health System, HCA Healthcare's Sunrise Health System, Dignity Health St. Rose Dominican, and University Medical Center, according to AllHomesLasVegas.com.
A Project City Leaders Have Compared to Allegiant Stadium
The scale of ambition behind the project isn't new. Back in 2022, during early discussions, city leadership compared the long-term community and economic impact of the multibillion-dollar medical campus to building something on the scale of Allegiant Stadium, the Review-Journal reported at the time. Whether the eventual facility reaches anywhere near that scope will depend on which of the two unnamed finalist health systems the city ultimately selects, and what terms emerge from the coming negotiation window.
