Baptist, Mayo get city approval for multimillion-dollar towers (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Two multi-million-dollar tower expansion projects at Jacksonville’s leading health care organizations got the go-ahead from the city to start next phases, totaling roughly $205 million between the pair.
The largest approval this week happened Wednesday for Baptist Health Jacksonville’s rising emergency tower. Specifically, the permit for phases two through six was approved, issued to Legacy Engineering Inc.
The $187.4 million permit outlines the addition of 123,903 square feet, the core part of the health system’s four-story tower unveiled earlier this year.
Work in recent months was focused on relocating the ambulance drop-off area, and it will now move to its longest phase: physical construction of the tower.
That’s expected to take 18 to 24 months, according to Erik Higgins, associate principal of Hoefer Welker, the firm of designing the tower, in February.
“Our main campus provides care for more emergency patients than any other hospital in the greater Jacksonville area,” Baptist President and CEO Michael Mayo said in a statement at the time. “We challenged ourselves to do more than expand and renovate what exists today – instead, we are re-imagining the entire environment of care.”
Tower plans feature two distinctive emergency rooms, waiting areas and patient care rooms comprising 100 emergency rooms in total — 63 for adults and 37 for children, including three pediatric trauma rooms on the first floor.
Farther east, the city issued the Robins and Morton Group an $18.97 million permit on behalf of Mayo Clinic for the hospital’s next phase of renovations.
Work will consist of building out radiology, pharmacy and other health care support spaces, according to the permit. It’s part of a $130.7 million, five-story hospital expansion that began phased openings in April, with full completion expected by the end of 2026.
Located at 4500 San Pablo Road S., this approval was listed as expansion phase 3B.
“Far and away, our main focus here is on destination complex care for patients with serious or complex types of conditions,” Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, told the Business Journal earlier this year. “That’ll be where we continue to position ourselves as a complement to what’s already being developed and delivered here in the Jacksonville community.”