Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy and the Alice L. Walton Foundation broke ground Sept. 17 on a more than 120-acre healthcare campus in Bentonville, Ark.
Five things to know:
1. Construction has begun on the AWSOM Whole Health Campus’ first building, the Center for Advanced Specialty Care, which will focus on cardiac care services in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic, according to a Sept. 17 news release from the Alice L. Walton Foundation.
2. Planned to open in 2029, the 709,000-square-foot facility will include orthopedics, gastroenterology and neurology. A cancer care destination with more than 1.1 million square feet dedicated to oncology treatment is also in development.
3. The campus will include a new hospital containing more than 250 beds and 40 operating rooms in an additional 1 million square feet, creating nearly 3 million new square feet dedicated to specialty care.
4. The Tyson Family Foundation and Tyson Foods, Inc. made a $50 million combined charitable pledge to support the campus, the release said.
5. Alice Walton, the heiress to the Walmart fortune, founded The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, which welcomed its first cohort of students with waived tuition in July 2024.
