Wellington Regional breaks ground on ER
Wellington Regional to run stand-alone $12.5M emergency department.
The 11,000-square-foot facility, a freestanding emergency department, will be at 16400 Persimmon Blvd. in Westlake.
When shovels hit the dirt Thursday morning in Westlake, they turned the soil where the city’s first nonresidential development will sit.
A freestanding emergency department run by Wellington Regional Medical Center was approved in February by Westlake’s City Council. The nearly 11,000-square-foot facility will be at 16400 Persimmon Blvd., on the southeast corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Persimmon Boulevard. Officials said the $12.5 million facility is expected to see its first patient in January.
“It’s very exciting to see what’s happening out here over the last couple of years,” Westlake Mayor Roger Manning said, calling the emergency department “the first piece of the puzzle in our commercial development.”
Present for the ceremony were officials with Minto Communities, the company behind Westlake’s development. Minto owns most of the land in the fledgling city and this month sold the 5.66-acre tract on which the standalone ER will be to Wellington Regional for nearly $2 million, according to county records.
“This is really a cornerstone from the community design perspective,” Minto Vice President John Carter said. He and other officials emphasized the regional support the facility is expected to provide, citing the distance from The Acreage to other emergency departments.
“People need to be able to get health care in their community,” Wellington Regional CEO Robbin Lee said. The Westlake facility will provide care for everything from bumps and bruises to heart attacks and strokes, she said. A helipad will be available to fly patients needing more intensive care from Westlake to Wellington Regional Medical Center on the northwest corner of Forest Hill Boulevard and State Road 7.
Wellington Regional also plans to evaluate the site for further development. With nearly 6 acres, there’s room to grow, Lee said. But what may be built — whether an outpatient surgery center, medical offices or other space — will be dictated by the demand in the area. “We want to see and build with them,” Lee said.
The emergency department isn’t the only commercial development Westlake has in the works. Last month, officials approved a site plan for Florida Power & Light Co. to build a 401-acre solar plant on the city’s west end.
Minto initially pitched the development that now is the city of Westlake as a 4,500-home, 3,800-acre master-planned community. Then known as Minto West, the plans were approved by the County Commission in 2014. That plan also includes more than 2 million square feet of nonresidential space including retail, schools and restaurants — and a medical facility.
Minto West was not without significant opposition from Acreage residents who said the project would not fit with the surrounding rural neighborhoods. Minto said the development would offer services to the area. In early 2016, Carter projected Minto West would be “the new downtown of central Palm Beach County” with $1 billion of economic impact over 20 years.
Westlake was incorporated in 2016 based on a vote of five people. It became Palm Beach County’s 39th municipality and faced challenges to its incorporation from residents and officials including County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.