St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has filed a $187.2 million permit for its Advanced Research Center II, a 16-floor, 865,000-square-foot tower that will be the largest building in the hospital’s history. It is expected to be completed by early 2029, and it is one of the most significant infrastructure investments happening anywhere in the country right now.
ARC II will house 130 lab spaces across 13 floors, sitting adjacent to the existing Inspiration4 Advanced Research Center that St. Jude completed in 2021. Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects is the architect of record and W.G. Yates and Sons Construction is the general contractor. The permit covers interior fit-outs for research labs across 10 floors, with the full build spanning nearly 865,000 square feet across 16 floors.
When fully operational, the expansion is expected to bring approximately 2,000 additional jobs to Memphis, building on St. Jude’s current workforce of around 8,000. It is part of the hospital’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan, which carries a $12.9 billion commitment and over $2 billion dedicated to construction and capital needs. St. Jude has already added over $1 billion in new construction in the past five years alone. For anyone watching Memphis from the outside wondering where to plant roots, this is the kind of long-term institutional confidence in a city that answers the question.
