- April 2, 2025
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The sale of the Lehigh Regional Medical Center in Lee County has been completed and plans are underway for a new freestanding emergency center to be built on Alico Road. HCA Florida Healthcare announced Thursday the deal had closed, saying it had bought the hospital at 1500 Lee Blvd. in Lehigh Acres and was renaming it HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital. County records show the hospital building sold to Nashville-based HCA Healthcare for $31.6 million. The medical center is a 53-bed hospital founded in 1965. California-based Prime Healthcare had owned it since 2006, when it paid $6 million for the building. When the sale was initiated last year, Prime notified state and local officials that 294 employees had been laid off but offered the opportunity to join HCA. An HCA spokesperson says 300 employees made the transition. In addition to the sale, HCA Florida, part of HCA Healthcare, says it is building a freestanding emergency room on Alico Road near Three Oaks Parkway. It will be named HCA Florida Alico Emergency and is expected to open next year. With the purchase and the new emergency room, a spokesperson says HCA will have $134.5 million invested in Lee. That includes two other existing freestanding emergency rooms — HCA Florida Cape Coral Emergency and HCA Florida West Fort Myers Emergency.
The Hilton hotel chain has officially opened one of its DoubleTree branded properties in Fort Myers after a two-year renovation and conversion. Formerly a Crowne Plaza, the hotel is at 13051 Bell Tower Drive in the Bell Tower mall. Renovations at the newly-minted DoubleTree by Hilton Fort Myers began in 2023 with the refurbishing of it 225 rooms. That was followed by upgrades to the hotel’s lobby, 6,196 square feet of meeting space and the Shoeless Joe’s Sports Café, an in-house restaurant, according to a statement. The work included a complete renovation of the hotel’s ballroom with new chairs, lighting, carpet, walls and partitions. A spokesperson for the hotel did not disclose the cost of the work.
Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties has unveiled several new projects it is planning, among them a new headquarters building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to replace the one destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The group’s plan, laid out at a community event in February and announced in a news release, includes five affordable housing initiatives along with the permanent home. It is partnering with Lee County to build five affordable housing projects totaling 204 single-family houses. Partial funding for these projects is coming through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery fund, part of the $1.1 billion that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated to Lee after Hurricane Ian. Habitat says the funding will help complete two neighborhoods already under construction — Heritage Heights in Harlem Heights and McNeill Village in North Fort Myers — while also advancing three other projects: Diplomat South in North Fort Myers, White Coral in Fort Myers and scattered lots across Cape Coral. The local Habitat chapter says about 1,900 families have bought its houses in Lee and Hendry since 1982. The homeowners help build their own houses, contribute towards closing costs and have a mortgage payment set at no more than 30% of their monthly income.
A Tampa Circle K property has sold for $2.72 million. The 5,476-square-foot convivence store sits on 2.19 acres at 3600 W. Waters Ave. at Himes Avenue. It was built in 2022 and, according to SRS Real Estate Partners, which represented the seller, WMG Development, has a corporate-guaranteed long-term lease in place. SRS did not disclose the terms of the lease but according to a previous listing it is for 15 years. The buyer is a Boca Raton LLC that bought it as a 1031 Exchange. The Circle K is part of Mabry Marketplace, a planned 18-acre commercial development on a notorious piece of property in Tampa. The site is the former home of a Honeywell plant that for years contaminated the soil and the lake on the property. It was eventually designated a brownfield site as the contamination left the property unsellable. WMG said in 2021 that “after rigorous analysis and support from local officials, WMG embraced the challenge and will implement the goal of the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Act to reuse a former industrial site as a source of employment and economic productivity for the area.” According to the county property records, WMG acquired the property through a quit claim deed Dec. 31, 2020. Patrick Nutt and William Wamble represented WMG for SRS.
HMC Hospitality, a Clearwater company that founded the Hooters restaurant chain in 1983, is trying to reassure customers that its 22 locations are safe from bankruptcy. The unusual statement from HMC comes as the company that owns and operates many of the chain’s restaurants, Hooters of America, has reportedly been in talks with creditors about restructuring its finances through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That process would include closing locations. In the statement issued by HMC, the company says its locations in the Tampa Bay area and in metro Chicago are safe and continue to operate at a high level. The company says it issued the statement because it “wants to reiterate its strong financial position and is in position for continued growth” of the brand. That growth includes opening two new locations this year in Florida, including one in Pasco County, and expanding into the Las Vegas market. The Pasco restaurant will be in Wesley Chapel at 25245 Wesley Chapel Blvd, The chain is known both for its Buffalo-style chicken wings and, even in 2025, its scantily clad waitresses. It started as a single location on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in the early 1980s and today is in 36 states and 10 countries. HMC is owned by the chain’s original owners. According to a Feb. 25 report in Bloomberg News, a bankruptcy plan could allow HMC to “team up with creditors to control the company.”
Mattamy Homes has finished four model homes in Wellen Park, a North Port master-planned community. Dubbed coach homes, the units are two bedrooms, two baths and 1,341 square feet to 1,721 square feet. They include first- and second-floor units in two-story buildings, the homebuilder says, and there are six homes per building. Prices start at $339,990. The units are in the Lakespur at Wellen Park community. Lakespur’s first phase, Mattamy says, include 138 single-family homes by Lennar and Pulte Homes. Wellen Park is on 11,000 acres, including 7,000 acres of undeveloped land, and when fully built will have 22,000 homes and more than 50,000 residents.
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