Ground was broken on Thursday for University Health Palo Alto, the South Side's new University Health hospital.
The five-story facility is set to open in 2027 next door to Texas A&M San Antonio.
UH President CEO George Hernandez said the planned 166 bed facility, which can be expanded to 286 beds, is needed to meet the medical needs of a booming South Bexar County.
The area includes a growing Texas A&M campus, commercial truck-maker Navistar, pickup producer Toyota, and rows of new subdivisions.
"This is the future center of a different community. We need to put a stake in the ground to help," Hernandez said.
He and Precinct 1 County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores led the push for the facility to help close the public hospital care gap between North and South Bexar County, which became urgently apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Hopefully, the next generation can say that today was the beginning of planting roots for a true South Side Medical Center," Clay-Flores said.
UH Palo Alto will also have a 24-7 emergency room and operating rooms, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care, radiology, and lab services.
Clay-Flores said the hospital with a connected medical office building will make follow up care more convenient for South Side residents. She said she hoped private hospital systems, such as Methodist and Baptist, will follow suit and increase their presence on the South Side too.
A similar UH hospital is planned near Retama Park in Northeast Bexar County as UH expands outside of its decade's long hospital presence in the Medical Center in Northwest San Antonio.
