The Inova Alexandria Hospital replacement and a new hospital to the south in Fairfax County remain on schedule for opening in late 2028 — potentially on the same day.
Meeting the timetable will be good news for the region’s economy, Inova Health System CEO Dr. J. Stephen Jones said at a June 16 roundtable of Fairfax County’s Council for Economic Opportunity, a group of government and business leaders looking at high-level economic, development and technology trends. Jones called health care “the job engine and in many ways economic engine” of Northern Virginia.
Inova’s two hospital projects include a 192-bed facility rising at the WestEnd development on the former Landmark Mall site in Alexandria, with a new 110-bed Inova Franconia-Springfield Hospital linked to the existing HealthPlex outpatient facility in Fairfax County.
When both facilities are operational, plans call for the Inova Alexandria Hospital on Seminary Road to close. Inova plans redevelopment of the site, centered on housing.
“It will be an employment magnet,” Jones said of the $2.5 billion being invested in the new facilities. “We have confidence in our ability to arrive and thrive.”
At the roundtable discussion, Fairfax County Supervisor Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville) asked Jones to report back later on how Fairfax County’s development process had varied from Alexandria’s in the planning phases of the two hospitals.
“What was easier to do in Fairfax County, what was easier in Alexandria?” Bierman asked. “We are always trying to improve our development process.”
At the meeting, participants focused on opportunities to streamline the approval of health care development projects. Like nearly all developers, Jones said he would welcome process improvements from local governments.
“Make it easy [and] you’ll get more things built,” he said. “If it’s not doable to build, building doesn’t happen.”
Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeff McKay (D) said that from his vantage point, Inova has been taking the right steps to meet community needs.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever felt more confidence in the leadership and the future,” McKay said.
Having a solid regional health care infrastructure — via Inova and others — aids in economic development efforts, McKay said.
Companies “absolutely look at health care” when making relocation and expansion decisions, he said.
Fairfax Supervisor Dan Storck (D-Mount Vernon), who chairs the Council for Economic Opportunity, noted that health care as a percentage of the nation’s economy has more than doubled to 18% over the past half-century.
Moving forward with new facilities and services is not optional but necessary, Storck said.
“If we’re not winning, we’re losing,” he said.
The Twig, a fundraising group founded in 1933 as the Junior Auxiliary of Alexandria Hospital, has committed to giving $2 million toward the Inova Alexandria Hospital campus at the WestEnd development.
What is now Inova Alexandria Hospital traces its roots to the opening of the Alexandria Infirmary at the southwest corner of Duke and Fairfax streets in 1873. It expanded, changing names and locations, until finding its current Seminary Road home in 1962.
The independent hospital merged into the Inova system in the mid-1990s. Today, Inova is the region’s largest private employer, with about 12,000 staff and an annual budget approaching $7 billion. Jones, a board-certified urologist who previously served as president of regional hospitals and health centers for the Cleveland Clinic, was named Inova’s CEO in 2018 to replace longtime hospital leader Knox Singleton.
