UCSF has received a $500 million commitment from the Helen Diller Foundation toward rebuilding its Parnassus Heights hospital in the Inner Sunset District.
This is the foundation’s third major contribution to the University of California, San Francisco in the last 15 years. In total, the family foundation has donated or committed more than $1.15 billion to the university to support faculty and students, innovation programs and cancer research.
The gift will allow UCSF to begin the planning process for a new seismically sound hospital, which must be rebuilt by 2030 to comply with state requirements. The new hospital, originally built in the mid-1950s, will be complete and open for patients before 2030, the university said.
"We’re stunned at the magnitude of this gift and the generosity of the Dillers. These kinds of gifts will touch millions of people," said Mark Laret, president and CEO of UCSF Health.
In recognition of the Dillers’ gift, the hospital and outpatient complex will be renamed the UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights.
The Diller's massive fortune came from real estate development giant Prometheus Real Estate Group, founded by Sanford Diller, who died this month at age 90.
Over the years, the family's success in business helped fuel their philanthropy in science, medicine, the arts and education locally and abroad. Sanford Diller's wife Helen, who died in 2015, was a longtime friend and major donor to the university. Sanford was also interested in medicine and technology and wanted to support the university when they were introduced to the scientists there more than a decade ago.
“Mr. Diller has long had a passion that hospital care should be made more human, more intimate. The facilities should be more healing focused than they traditionally are,” Laret said.
The $500 million donation comes on the heels of last year's $500 million donation from the Dillers to UCSF for student and faculty programs and to create an unrestricted innovation fund. That was a record gift for UCSF, and among the largest contributions ever given to an academic institution. In 2003, the Diller foundation gave $35 million to establish the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus.
Jackie Safier, one of Sanford and Helen Diller’s three children, now serves as president of the family’s foundation and Prometheus. Safier also sits on the UCSF Foundation board of directors.
“My mother thought giving time and also (giving financially) is a wonderful combination. That’s a winning formula. I’ll follow on that lead,” Safier told the Business Times in October.
Based in San Mateo, the Diller family business has been developing real estate in the Bay Area and around the West Coast since 1965. Prometheus has more than 500 employees and 15,000 apartments in the Bay Area, Seattle and Portland areas, as well as a sizable office portfolio.
UCSF Medical Center was the busiest Bay Area hospital in 2016, with $2.94 billion in net patient revenue and 216,074 in total patient days, or the number of days patients are formally admitted to the hospital. The science and medicine powerhouse has attracted many rockstar philanthropists over the years, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and venture capitalist and entrepreneur Sean Parker. Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill and wife Joan also gave $185 million to open the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences at Mission Bay.
It's too early to say whether the new hospital will increase in size and capacity, Laret said, but the donation will help speed up the opening. The university has broader plans to modernize and rebuild many parts of Parnassus, which houses half of its 25,522 Bay Area employees along with its four professional schools. Laret estimates the hospital construction costing at least $1.5 billion and said the university will have a clearer idea of cost and what will get renovated on campus in the next two years.
“(Parnassus is) a major hub for us along with Mission Bay and then Mt. Zion being a third site. It’s critical long term for us. The hospital is one of the anchor tenants along with the research, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and medicine. This gift helps us accelerate the planning and hopefully the opening of (the hospital),” Laret said.
Last year, UCSF kicked off its largest-ever fundraising campaign for $5 billion to advance its science and support discoveries in new areas of big data, technology and molecular biology. The Dillers' gift will count toward this goal, which is already more than halfway complete.
