Radford University is finalizing plans to build its new health sciences facility on Roanoke’s Jefferson Street, using a site not far from its current location, a university spokesperson confirmed.
It will house all Radford University Carilion programs, including those now housed in the former Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital building at the corner of Jefferson Street and Elm Avenue, as well as those at the Roanoke Higher Education Center.
The university announced three years ago that it would build a new facility, and a site study later followed. The university shared the location of the chosen site — at 930 Jefferson St. S.E. — during a Board of Visitors committee meeting earlier this month.
Final building size and number of floors are yet to be determined, said Justin Ward, Radford University’s director of media services. Carilion directed all questions surrounding the new site to Radford.
[Disclosure: Carilion Clinic is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Ward said questions related to shared services, final programming and other operational considerations are a part of an ongoing planning process. Ward did not say how much the project is expected to cost.
There was capital funding from the state approved in 2025 for the project, but it’s not clear how much of the more than $30 million appropriation for various projects was allocated to the Radford initiative. Ward did not say how much state funding was received.
Ward did not answer questions related to the selection of this site over a second site on Williamson Road that was also considered.
More information should become available, Ward said, as planning and design teams continue working throughout the summer.
Radford University Carilion is currently housed in the Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital building — “of which we’ve run out of space,” former RUC interim associate provost, Glen Mayhew, said during a March 2023 Radford University Board of Visitors meeting.
Mayhew said at that time that Carilion also needs additional space in that facility as they expand their outpatient reach.
The university will build a new facility, hopefully by fall 2028, Mayhew said in 2023. The site sits on Jefferson Street, between Highland Avenue and Mountain Avenue, next to the Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital’s parking lot.
The university is contracted with Carilion for a 10-year lease for its current building. That lease expires in 2030, Mayhew said.
“In many ways, the university has been planning for this new facility ever since the merger with Jefferson College,” President Bret Danilowicz’s remarks read from the board of visitors’ September 2024 meeting.
In 2019, Jefferson College of Health Sciences in downtown Roanoke merged with Radford University and Carilion Clinic to form RUC.
This spring, Radford University had over 7,300 students enrolled. Almost 400 of those students were enrolled at RUC this spring, with over 150 at the Roanoke Higher Education Center, where the nursing school is currently housed.
