Orlando Health to add 2 new ERs
Provider is also planning a behavioral health hospital
Orlando Health is renovating a former Harley Davidson dealership near Waterford Lakes and redeveloping its hospital campus in Longwood as part of plans to bring two new free-standing emergency rooms to the Orlando area.
And while these facilities move forward — and as construction continues on a 320,000-square-foot acute care hospital in Lake Mary — the health care provider also recently filed plans for a new two-story, 144-room behavioral health hospital along Orange Blossom Trail in Apopka.
Orlando Health will design and build the 100,000-square-foot hospital in partnership with Acadia Healthcare, which is currently managing behavioral health services at Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital in Longwood. The organizations announced a joint-venture partnership in December 2021 designed to enhance and expand behavioral health services in Central Florida. The behavioral health hospital is expected to open in 2024, according to a news release.
It’s among several development projects in the pipeline for Orlando Health.
Orlando Health also is currently building a hospital campus in Seminole County at Lake Mary’s Wellness and Technology Park that will include two six-story towers with 180 beds. At 320,000 square feet, Orlando Health Lake Mary Hospital will be a comprehensive acute care facility with labor and delivery services, a neonatal intensive care unit, six state-of-the-art operating rooms, two catheterization labs, a comprehensive imaging suite, medical-surgical bed units, an observation unit, dining, chapel and gift shop.
With that new hospital expected to open in 2024, Orlando Health is redeveloping its smaller South Seminole Hospital in Longwood as a healthcare hub that would be anchored by a new free-standing emergency department.
The emergency department would cover 12,910 square feet at the southern tip of the property, closest to S.R. 434, according to site plans submitted to the St. John’s River Water Management District. Construction is expected to start in 2024.
Most of the Longwood campus will be redeveloped, leaving two existing medical office buildings to continue offering important services such as cardiology, pulmonology, rehabilitation, general surgery, infectious disease, and urology.
The behavioral health services that are offered here currently will be relocated to the behavioral health hospital underway in Apopka at 1452 South Orange Blossom Trail.
Currently, the system has six free-standing emergency rooms, with the most recent opening at East Orlando’s Randal Park in June 2021.
The Villages may be growing again
The Villages could be planning another major expansion into Lake County — this time in the City of Mascotte.
The mega-retirement community, under the LLC Buffalo Hide and Cattle Company, bought land from real estate firm Maury L. Carter & Associates for $7 million earlier this month, according to Lake County property records. The 900-acre property sits west of State Road 33, South of Austin Merritt Road and east of Honeycut Road.
The Villages’ land purchase in Mascotte comes as the community is expanding, but it is unclear at this point what is planned for the property, as no plans have been submitted yet, said Max Spann, the city’s planner.
According to the firm’s website, the property is currently zoned as rural residential and allows for one dwelling per acre, which would mean around 900 homes could be built. A rezoning would be required to build more homes at a higher density.
Currently, The Villages spans three counties — Lake, Sumter and Marion — and several cities including Fruitland Park, Lady Lake, Leesburg, Wildwood and Coleman. It’s the nation’s largest and fastest-growing retirement community, boasting a population of more than 138,000. And it continues to climb.