TEXAS — Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth announced a major vertical expansion of the John and Jane Justin Tower that will add four floors, relocate Women's Services into a dedicated Jane and John Justin Center for Women & Infants, expand neonatal care and increase patient capacity across the campus.
What the expansion includes
The project will construct two operational floors and preserve two shell floors for future needs. Floors 11 and 12 are planned to house labor and delivery, a nursery, dedicated operating rooms and clinical units for antepartum, postpartum and gynecology patients. Floors 9 and 10 will remain unfinished shell space to be built out later as demand dictates.
- Four new floors will be added to the existing Justin Tower.
- Relocation of Women’s Services into the new center inside the tower.
- Neonatal intensive care capacity will be expanded.
- 71 patient rooms will be added by finishing two existing floors earlier on the tower.
- The Obstetric Emergency Department will be moved into Justin Tower and receive a dedicated entrance.
The work builds on a naming gift from the Jane & John Justin Foundation and follows an earlier foundation donation that helped fund the Justin Tower’s original construction. The hospital said the vertical expansion will be undertaken while the tower remains in operation.
"This is more than a hospital expansion; it's an investment in the health and future of our community," said Josh Floren, chief operating officer of Texas Health's Hospital Channel.
Timeline and recent campus changes
Separate construction to finish the tower’s fourth and fifth floors is already underway and is expected to add 71 patient rooms and create a Surgical Trauma Progressive Care Unit for patients who need care beyond a general medical-surgical unit but not full intensive care. Those floors are projected to open in 2026. The broader vertical expansion — adding the four additional floors and moving Women’s Services into the tower — is expected to be completed in 2029.
| Component | Planned outcome |
|---|---|
| Floors 11–12 | Jane and John Justin Center for Women & Infants (labor/delivery, nursery, ORs, ante/postpartum, gynecology) |
| Floors 9–10 | Unfinished shell space for future expansion |
| Floors 4–5 (separate work) | Add 71 patient rooms; Surgical Trauma Progressive Care Unit; opening in 2026 |
When the Justin Tower opened in April 2022, it added 144 patient beds and increased surgical capacity by nearly 30 percent, according to the hospital. Hospital leaders framed the new work as a response to population growth in North Texas and the need to expand access to specialized care.
For Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the expansion targets two persistent pressures on the health-care system: capacity and specialized maternal-newborn services. Adding beds and neonatal capability could reduce pressure on other area hospitals and provide closer-to-home care for expectant mothers and critically ill newborns. The decision to leave two floors as shell space suggests hospital officials want flexibility to adapt to future demand and medical advances without another major vertical project.
Construction will be staged to keep the existing tower operational through the build-out. Hospital officials did not release cost details in the announcement.
