$450M hospital approved for North Port

"Building a hospital in North Port has been part of our strategic plan and goals for many years," Sarasota Memorial Health Care System President and CEO David Verinder says in a statement.


Sarasota Memorial Hospital's North Port campus will have six floors, with room for future expansion.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital's North Port campus will have six floors, with room for future expansion.
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The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board recently approved plans to build a $450 million hospital in North Port. It will be on North Sumter Boulevard near Interstate 75.

Expected to open in 2028, the North Port hospital will be six stories and include 100 beds with room for growth, according to a statement from Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. It will mark the third acute-care hospital for the health care system, which operates campuses in Sarasota and Venice.

“Building a hospital in North Port has been part of our strategic plan and goals for many years, and I could not be more excited to break ground in 2025 during our centennial year,” Sarasota Memorial Health Care System President and CEO David Verinder says in a Jan. 28 statement.

Site preparation will begin immediately, with a groundbreaking ceremony planned for later this year. Construction is expected to take 30 months.

“It has taken time to build the medical infrastructure necessary to support the city’s first hospital, but we feel confident moving forward that we have the commitment and resources to ensure its success,” Verinder says.

To staff the North Port campus, Sarasota Memorial will be recruiting more than 70 physicians. Opening the hospital in Venice in 2021 helped expand the system’s physician base further south, according to Verinder. The Venice hospital, which reached capacity within days of opening, also recently underwent an expansion to help meet demand.

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System CEO David Verinder
Courtesy image

The plan that the hospital board approved for North Port reflects the first phase of development, which includes a 305,000-square-foot hospital, 60,000-square-foot medical office building and backup energy center, according to a statement.

On the first floor of the hospital will be emergency, diagnostic, administrative and support services, while the second floor will be for surgery and other procedures. Patient care units with 100 private rooms for admitted patients will be on floors three, four and five. The sixth floor will be reserved for mechanical space and “will provide the infrastructure that will allow the SMH to add three more patient care floors and expand the hospital capacity to 208 beds in a future phase,” according to a statement.

“This is a landmark step for North Port,” North Port City Manager Jerome Fletcher says in a statement about the hospital board's Jan. 28 vote to move forward with the plan.

North Port, the largest city in Sarasota County with more than 95,000 residents, has had a longstanding request for a hospital. 

“With today’s decision, the quality health care so many North Port residents have desired for years is finally on its way to our community, along with new career opportunities for our workforce. The city is committed to working with SMH through the development process to bring this project to life.”

During 2024, hospital staff collaborated with North Port personnel and regulatory officials to get initial approvals needed to begin developing a medical campus on the site in the 4900 block of North Sumter Boulevard, as well as a new campus in nearby Wellen Park.

The hospital board will review and update plans for its Wellen Park campus and existing freestanding ER and health care center on Toledo Blade Boulevard this summer while discussing growth initiatives during the health system’s budget and strategic planning sessions.


 

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Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a business news reporter with the Business Observer, covering primarily Sarasota-Bradenton, in addition to other parts of the region. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she previously covered hyperlocal news in Maryland for Patch for 12 years. Now she lives in Sarasota County.

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