Crews are putting the finishing touches on UMKC's largest capital project in its history, a 200,000-square-foot health sciences building at 25th and Charlotte streets that is set to reshape how Kansas City trains dentists and treats patients when it opens in February 2027. The six-story facility has a $120 million price tag.
A Decades-Spanning Public-Private Funding Push
The project, detailed by Kansas City Magazine and earlier covered by Flatland KC in October 2023, drew together $60 million in Missouri state appropriations, $30 million from the Sunderland Foundation, $15 million from the Hall Family Foundation, and $10 million in federal funding secured by former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, according to Flatland KC. UMKC officially broke ground on September 11, 2024, and reached its structural topping-out milestone when crews installed the final steel beam on September 17, 2025, as reported by UMKC Today.
The building's design involved RDG Planning & Design and Clark & Enersen, while McCownGordon Construction is overseeing construction, per RDG Planning & Design. RDG also notes that UMKC is one of only 20 universities nationwide where schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and health studies, and pharmacy share a single, walkable campus — a layout the new facility is designed to reinforce.
Clinics Built for Efficiency and Natural Light
Inside, the building will bring together School of Dentistry patient clinics, School of Medicine simulation labs, the UMKC Health Equity Institute, biomedical engineering, and a data science and analytics innovation center, per the magazine's report. The third and fourth floors alone will house 180 operatories for UMKC's predoctoral dental clinic, according to the School of Dentistry, along with an acute dental care center, radiology and laboratory space, and a dental design lab capable of producing crowns, bridges, and implants.
The building will include dental clinics for patient care and student training.
Addressing a Statewide Dental Care Gap
The stakes extend well beyond campus. UMKC's School of Dentistry is the only public dental school in Missouri or Kansas, according to the university, and its clinics provide up to $750,000 in uncompensated dental care annually, per UMKC and the American Dental Education Association. In southwest Missouri, Harvard Magazine reports that almost every county within a 125-mile radius of Joplin qualifies as a “Dental Health Professional Shortage Area” according to HRSA.
University officials say the new facility will let students treat more patients through increased efficiency, advanced equipment, expanded acute-care hours, and teledentistry, which could extend dental expertise to patients in places with limited access to care. Beyond the dental clinics, the facility will include School of Medicine simulation labs and operating rooms.
A Cornerstone for Hospital Hill's Health District
The project serves as a cornerstone for the UMKC Health Sciences District on Hospital Hill, a cooperative partnership launched in May 2017 among UMKC and a dozen area health institutions, as reported by KCUR. The two-mile district was formed to foster joint research and clinical outreach south of downtown Kansas City.
With construction winding down and the February 2027 opening on the horizon, the building represents both a milestone for the dental program and a practical test of whether added clinic capacity, teledentistry, and faster workflows can actually chip away at Missouri's persistent oral health shortages once patients start walking through the doors.
