NYU Langone Health has announced plans for the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center in West Palm Beach. The center is expected to open in 2026 and is made possible by a $75 million gift from the Julia Koch Family Foundation. The eight-story facility will have 77,000 square feet of clinical space for 50 physicians and is expected to serve 150,000 patients annually.
The project, pending city approvals, is expected to create approximately 1,000 construction jobs in the Palm Beach area.
The center at 324 Datura St. will have on-demand specialty care in areas including internal medicine and primary care, oncology and pain management.
West Palm Beach appears on the verge of building a nucleus of highly-rated medical centers with roots in New York, much like many of its residents. The Hospital for Special Surgery, opened in West Palm Beach in 2020. It has been rated as the No. 1 orthopedic center by U.S. News and World Report.
Palm Beach County economic development officials have been working hard to position the city as Wall Street South. Enterprises establishing offices in the county include Virtu Financial, BlackRock, Citadel, Elliott Management, and Goldman Sachs.
Famed New York developer Steve Ross’ Related Cos. Is the largest landlord in downtown West Palm Beach and is developing seventh and eighth office towers on the northeast corner of Hibiscus Street and Rosemary Avenue. Ross has a home in Palm Beach and also owns the Miami Dolphins.
The Koch family also has deep roots in the Town of Palm Beach.
“My family and I have been impressed with NYU Langone’s transformation in the past two decades,” Julia Koch said in a press release. “Through its growing outpatient network, the institution continues to increase access to the best care, through groundbreaking research and cutting-edge medical education. NYU Langone is a leader in world-class care and bringing that level of service to the vibrant community of Palm Beach is deeply meaningful to our family.”
In the annual Forbes ranking for April 2023, Koch ranked second among the richest women in the world with a fortune of $59 billion. She inherited her fortune from her husband, David, who died in 2019.
David Koch controlled Koch Industries with his brother Charles, who is now chairman and worth an estimated $55 billion, ranking 25th on Forbes global ranking. Julia is on the company’s board.
Julia is also on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Venetian Heritage.
Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kansas, is one of the nation’s largest private companies, with estimated annual revenues of more than $125 billion, according to Forbes. It owns a diverse group of companies in many industries. One of its best-known consumer brands is Georgia Pacific.
The gift to establish the new ambulatory care center is one of the Julia Koch Family Foundation’s first grants. Established in 2023, the creation of the Julia Koch Family Foundation marks a new chapter for philanthropist Julia Koch and her children while continuing the family’s lifelong commitment to philanthropy, the press release says. Gifts from the foundation will support transformative initiatives in healthcare, education, and the arts, with a particular focus on causes that impact the communities that are near and dear to the family.
“Since our arrival in 2017, demand continues to grow in Florida for the exceptional care our teams are already known for in New York,” said Robert I. Grossman, MD, CEO of NYU Langone and dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “We are excited to meet that need and Julia Koch and her family have been with us every step of the way. Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Julia Koch Family Foundation, we will be able to offer even more patients one high standard of care in a beautiful new location where our teams can seamlessly coordinate between Florida and New York.”
“Palm Beach County is full of New Yorkers, many of whom now live there year-round. For the rest of us it’s a home away from home—with one big deficit: a lack of comprehensive care from the full spectrum of NYU Langone doctors who offer unmatched quality in every specialty,” said Ken Langone, chair of the NYU Langone Board of Trustees. “Julia understands that need and has been an incredible partner – one who’s been all-in at working toward our shared vision.”
Langone is famed for organizing the financing that led to the founding of Home Depot and Forbes ranks him 283rd in global wealth at $8.5 billion and indicates he has contributed $300 million to the medical school. He reportedly has a home in North Palm Beach.
The new location will offer full-service radiology and imaging, two operating rooms for ambulatory surgery, two endoscopy suites, and eight physical therapy bays. Clinical services will include:
- internal medicine and primary care
- Comprehensive imaging
- orthopedics
- podiatry
- cardiology
- gastroenterology
- pulmonary
- rheumatology
- physical medicine & rehabilitation
- pain management
- neurology
- gynecology
- urology
- endocrinology
- oncology
- bariatrics
An existing NYU Langone ambulatory location nearby, at 101 N. Clematis St., will also be named for the Koch family.
NYU Langone comprises six inpatient locations and 300 outpatient sites across the New York metropolitan area and in Florida, all connected by a single electronic health record system.
NYU Langone’s outpatient network has been awarded the Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Award from Vizient Inc., a leading healthcare performance improvement organization, and named the No. 1 physician practice by Vizient every year since the award’s inception in 2015 in all but one of those years. This distinction recognizes NYU Langone’s consistent excellence in delivering high-quality care in five key domains: access to care, quality, efficiency, continuum of care, and equity.
