City of Atlanta officials announced Tuesday they will partner with the Morehouse School of Medicine to create a hospital to address healthcare gaps in Black neighborhoods.
The hospital, called “Project Robin,” was proposed to the Atlanta City Council last fall. At a May 26 committee meeting, city officials revealed more details about the project, including their partnership with the HBCU.
The $800 million hospital would be a Level 2 trauma center and potentially located at MET Atlanta, a 40-acre campus acquired by nonprofit health group Atrium Health in 2024.
“They are a great institution with great leadership,” Mayor Andre Dickens said about Morehouse. “They heard our cry for many years about trying to have a hospital.”
After the closure of Atlanta Medical Center facilities in 2022, local officials have been working to address healthcare gaps in Black communities south of Interstate 20 as surrounding medical facilities, like Grady Hospital, have had to take in patients left behind after the AMC closures.
Earlier this year, Fulton County commissioners greenlit Grady Health System’s plan to build a $900 million hospital in Union City.
For Project Robin to become a reality, funding still needs to be fully secured. Courtney English, the mayor’s chief of staff, said at the meeting that the city would need to provide around $110 million over the next decade to support the project.
The project was originally proposed to the City Council as part of a list of projects that would be supported by the mayor’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative — if the legislation is approved. The initiative involves extending six of the city’s eight Tax Allocation Districts through 2056 and using the tax revenue to conduct hundreds of projects in the city.
TADs are assigned areas where new property tax revenue is generated to fund infrastructure projects within those same areas.
English said a potential funding option for the hospital would be to use dollars from the Beltline TAD and to also use funds from a “special service district” that would levy an additional tax on businesses in the city. The revenue from that district would go into a trust fund to support community development.
In a statement from the Morehouse School of Medicine, the HBCU said it’s dedicated to expanding healthcare access.
“We applaud efforts to expand access to quality healthcare in Atlanta. Investing in the health of our communities will pay dividends that help ensure Atlanta remains one of the world’s great cities,” the statement said. “Morehouse School of Medicine remains committed to supporting community leaders and government officials as we build clinical pipelines, enhance training for physicians and other healthcare and science professionals, and improve outcomes for the communities we serve.”
The City Council is expected to vote on the mayor’s reinvestment initiative on June 15.
