Atrium Says 2022 Will See Groundbreaking for Charlotte’s Innovation District

It has been a busy year for North Carolina-based Atrium Health. In addition to announcing a major merger with Advocate Aurora Health in May, the health system also is partnering to create “The Pearl,” Charlotte’s new innovation district.

Developed in partnership between Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology, The Pearl leverages the partners’ experience and forward-thinking approach to embrace new ideas, research and technologies that will advance healthcare solutions and welcome people from all walks of life within our community.

Breaking ground in 2022, The Pearl will be a multi-phased, mixed-use development featuring office, lab, retail, residential, including affordable housing, community gathering and academic spaces. The first phase of the District includes Charlotte’s first four-year medical school, Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte.

Rasu Shrestha, M.D., enterprise executive vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer at Atrium Health, recently spoke at Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Insights Forum to discuss progress on the Pearl, according to Atrium’s website.

Shrestha shared how through Atrium Health’s partnership with Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Charlotte’s new innovation district will be taking what is best of the Innovation Quarter, an existing high-tech ecosystem that currently serves business, academic and societal needs in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Pearl will blend the successes of the Innovation Quarter with the uniqueness the local community to bring ideas, passion and curiosity and create a new area that will be transformative for Charlotte and the entire region, he said. A second campus of Wake Forest University School of Medicine will be a central part of The Pearl.

“Atrium Health is a mere catalyst for the innovation that will take place in this space, and The Pearl is the result of the ecosystem in play,” Shrestha said. “A lot of thinking, working and planning has involved not just Atrium Health but many others across Charlotte, the country and internationally, in the formulation of The Pearl.”

Atrium noted that Innovation districts are designed to spur purposeful collaboration between researchers, students, doctors, engineers, corporate innovators and entrepreneurs. These groups make up an ecosystem that together are responsible for driving innovation and building the life sciences companies of the future. Through the intentional design of these innovation district communities, The Pearl will seek to foster new partnerships, drive collaboration, and diversify the economy of the entire region.

IRCAD North America will also be headquartered in the new innovation district. While IRCAD has locations through the globe, this will be the first and exclusive location for IRCAD in this area of the world. IRCAD specializes in educating physicians from around the world in minimally invasive surgery techniques. It also features fundamental research laboratories and research and development units in computer science and robotics that design and develop tools for diagnosis, surgical planning and simulation aimed at improving and making surgical procedures safer.

The Pearl innovation district will be constructed near the historic Brooklyn District of Charlotte, where the first park for African American residents, Pearl Street Park is located. Atrium Health is planning to make intentional investments to recognize the historical relevance this area had on Charlotte. This includes establishing a fund focused on providing health care scholarships for students from underserved neighborhoods. Other elements include building greenways and paths into the innovation district from surrounding neighborhoods.

Groundbreaking for The Pearl will take place by the end of the 2022 and early next year there will be physical evidence of growth. Plans are for The Peal to be up and running by 2025 with the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte – the first four-year school of medicine in Charlotte – in its own building and IRCAD North America anchoring the research facility.

After the merger with Advocate Aurora Health is completed, the new organization will have a combined footprint across Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. It will serve 5.5 million patients, operate more than 1,000 sites of care and 67 hospitals, employ more than 7,600 physicians and nearly 150,000 teammates, and have combined annual revenues of more than $27 billion.

The combined organization will be headquartered in Charlotte and transition to a new brand, Advocate Health, with the Advocate Health and Atrium Health brands continuing to be used in their respective local markets.