WSTB

no one in Charlotte purchased Kennan or anything UNC as Atrium, a for profit outfit, purchased WFSofM.

Atrium didn't purchase the School of Medicine. That's just factually inaccurate.

OK, then I retract that statement if it is factually inaccurate. So, what exactly was it if WFSofM is listed everywhere as part of Atrium Medical and Atrium is based in Charlotte. It would be useful to have a succinct statement regarding the relationship.

"The systems first announced their plans for a “strategic combination” in April 2019 and formalized the agreement later that year. It was still subject to regulatory approval, a requirement since cleared. A strategic combination is not an acquisition — the entities remain intact and have separate boards. Those leaders, however, will answer to another 16-member board focused on Atrium's and Wake Forest's combined strategy."

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/n ... ation.html

Atrium gave and will continue to give WFBH a bunch of money to improve its infrastructure in W-S. WFBH is giving Atrium a School of Medicine campus in Charlotte, with all the clinical benefits that come with it (med students training in local hospitals and clinics) and all the research benefits (new technologies, partnerships, clinical trials). The two also agreed to re-brand the clinical operations of WFBH to align with Atrium's clinical brand.

WFSM still has its own leadership board that reports up through the WFU president and board of trustees. While Atrium is now heavily involved in day-to-day operations of WFSM, huge strategic decisions can't be made without that board's approval and ultimately, WFU's approval. And WFU has repeatedly said WFU will remain a W-S university.

There will be a ton of WFU and other university (UNC, etc) activity expanding to Charlotte in the next several years. Frankly, it's a very smart play as W-S growth is way behind Charlotte's. None of that means any of these universities are boarding up their facilities in W-S and moving to Charlotte.

Thanks for the explanation, which provides a degree of clarification. However, it is still somewhat disconcerting that WFSM is “under” the Atrium (based in Charlotte) umbrella/name. Separate, combined, etc. - OK then. But it’s similar to place names in counties with more than one official language (the USA has no official language and practices univocity in place naming meaning only one official name per feature). Anyway, this means, for example, while both Helsinki (Finnish) and Helsingfors (Swedish) are both official perceptibly Helsinki is “more official” because it is first. My point is references are, as far as I have seen, always Atrium/WFSM and I think in the organizational structure WFSM is listed with other entities all under Atrium. So, I do hope you are correct in the decision-making process and funding levels - we’ll see.

The way I understand concerning how this has panned out...Atrium does not "own" Wake Forest or the Medical School, and Wake Forest does not "own" Atrium or it's hospitals. Atrium only has it's name on the medical center because it took over day-to-day operations and management of the Baptist. Not the medical school.....the hospital. Apparently it was a blessing because of poor management. Would it have been better to see it further lose ground, and money?? What amazes me, to know end, is how Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center went from prominence of being listed yearly in the US News and World Report of the best hospitals in NC, ranked in multiple disciplines along with Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.....to no listing, AT ALL, and losing all it's ranking in the hospital list, and all the disciplines to go with it. What happened....poor management?? Perhaps the new collaboration with Atrium was a life saver, and will eventually infuse new money and energy into Winston-Salem.

About a year ago, I posted this chart which details the (then) new Atrium organization based on their SEC filings. I'm sure with the recent developments from Atrium, this will most likely be revised as they combine with the new company. This may help with this discussion regarding how the Wake Forest organization and management structure fits into the newly formed Atrium management structure.

Atrium Health / Wake Forest School of Medicine - Pearl District:
It's two buildings totaling around 600,000 square-feet, with research space, lab space, medical space, and academic space. They will cost around $400 million combined. Atrium Health will pay 37% (around $148 million) of the cost to make the project more attractive to Wexford. Wake Forest and Atrium are leasing around 70% / 420,000 square-feet of the space and the remaining 30% / 180,000 square-feet will be leased to other tenants. Keep in mind that Wake Forest will move their other Charlotte campus and its non-medical courses to this campus. They are still saying 2025 as the completion, but I've heard it could be pushed-back to 2026. And, as you can see, the tallest building is now down to just 13-storeys. It will have a lighted parapet with Wake Forest School of Medicine and Atrium Health on it. The shorter building is only 10-storeys (11 with mechanical).

Final value-engineered renderings of both buildings:


I do wish Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter had a 13-storey building with Wake Forest School of Medicine on a tall lighted parapet for everyone to see.