Christus Health sets out to create a permanent Irving hub for its multinational health care system

A decade ago, Christus Health moved 600 employees from four offices throughout Texas into rented space in Irving.

With a corporate workforce now totaling more than 2,200, the Catholic health care system is putting down permanent roots. It’s preparing to begin construction of a 15-story corporate office to manage its sprawling collection of hospitals, clinics, outpatient centers and long-term care facilities.

The project has an estimated cost of $107 million, according to planning documents filed with the state. Irving is providing Christus with nearly $4.9 million in economic incentives.

Hospital leaders and city officials broke ground Thursday for the 456,000-square-foot project at North O’Connor and West Las Colinas boulevards, near the Toyota Music Factory. It’s not expected to be completed until 2023.

The COVID-19 pandemic inspired some of the building’s specifications.

“It does give us the opportunity to build a system office that really accommodates what we’ve learned over these last 15 to 18 months,” president and CEO Ernie Sadau said.

That includes choices about filtration systems, the location of workspaces, touchless doors and faucets, and plentiful outdoor spaces, Sadau said. The new building will have nearly 10,000 feet of outdoor space, with patios on each floor.

Pandemic lessons even changed the dimensions of each of the building’s floors.

The building Christus leases has about 45,000 square feet per floor. The new building will have floors of about 20,000 square feet. Sadau said studies show a smaller footprint per floor reduces the number of people in one location, creating a safer environment.

Christus works with more 15,000 doctors at 600 health care facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico, as well as in Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

Sponsored by Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in Houston and San Antonio and Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, it has grown from about $4.5 billion in assets a decade ago to over $9 billion today.

Christus reported revenue of $5.7 billion last year, a 3% increase from 2019.

Sadau, who has led Christus since 2011, said the health care system is focused on creating a “healing ministry environment.”

“I think we provide a very high-quality outcome,” he said.