The newly formed alliance of UF Health and Jupiter Medical Center envisions a host of new developments, the maximum of which involves the vacant 70-acre parcel of land in Palm Beach Gardens’ Alton network.
Two new hospitals, plus a specialty hospital where patients can get the newest remedies from the university’s clinical research, are in the works, a senior Jupiter Medical official said.
Also under construction: a laboratory and a center for scientists.
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In addition, UF plans to build apartment complexes, some of which may be just space scientists and fitness workers.
Most of the projects are planned for the Alton space, a piece of land along Donald Ross Road, once planned for 1. 6 million square feet of biotech space.
The terrain is considered key to the University of Florida’s ability to create a biotech group in northern Palm Beach County, a vision once promised when national and local lawmakers brought California’s Scripps Research Institute to the state just about two decades ago.
In April, UF acquired Scripps’ stakes in Florida, adding the valuable Palm Beach Gardens land, about $70 million in 2021.
This month, UF Health announced a partnership with Jupiter Medical Center, the county’s independent nonprofit hospital.
A 50- to 80-bed hospital in Palm Beach Gardens would be an emblematic assignment of the new partnership.
If built, the nonprofit specialty hospital wouldn’t just be a biotech breakthrough. It would also serve as a tangible result of taxpayers’ multibillion-dollar investment in Scripps, officials said, closing the gap between studies and patient care in the county. .
Dr. Amit Rastogi, Jupiter Medical’s lead officer, called the hospital “transformational. “
Rastogi said the hospital would allow medical staff to supply medicines and treatment strategies developed by the university to patients in the region.
“I don’t know of any other establishment that can have this kind of mix of networked medicine, educational and clinical research,” Rastogi said in a recent interview.
“Having to test drugs in clinical trials is a game-changer,” said Richard Rendina, a Jupiter real estate developer who specializes in building doctors’ offices and hospitals. “This will directly benefit other people in Palm Beach County and the state of Florida. “
Jupiter Medical and UF Health are said to be the only physical care providers in this northern component of the county.
Right next to the 70-acre uf Scripps in Alton, Universal Health Services has submitted plans to the city of Palm Beach Gardens to build a 150-bed hospital that can be expanded to 300 beds. These plans are pending.
Separately, UF Health and Jupiter Medical are also making plans to build a “microhospital. “
This small hospital, in a still unknown location in the county, would have 10 to 20 beds, an emergency room, surgical and imaging facilities. Rastogi said the facility will be “in a position where other people don’t have access” to care. , adding emergency services.
The plans for any of the hospitals reflect UF Health’s great effort to identify a strong presence in Palm Beach County. UF, in Gainesville, also plans to open a campus to offer graduate systems in finance and generation in downtown West Palm Beach.
In addition to hospitals, a lab center is also planned on the Palm Beach Gardens grounds, said Neil Merin, president of brokerage firm NAI/Merin Hunter Codman and a leading real estate figure in Palm Beach County.
This leaves the rest of Palm Beach Gardens’ valuable assets still available for development.
Rastogi showed that the assets were considered as apartments, but did not specify, noting that the discussions were early.
It’s unclear that the land, now zoned for biotechnology, would be sold to a component developer or co-owned through the university as part of a joint venture with a builder.
But amid emerging rents and sky-high asset prices, Rastogi identified the need to offer housing to accommodate workers at uf and Jupiter Medical.
“What we need to do is solve the challenge of affordable housing for other people who would be interested in studies and physical care,” he said.
UF Health and Jupiter Medical’s plans to identify studies and remediate services come after years of hope and millions of taxpayer dollars to create a biomedical complex in the county.
Almost 20 years ago, then governor. Jeb Bush defended an offer to expand the prominent Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, Florida.
The plan to build a biotech business center in northern Palm Beach County, much like North Carolina’s famous Research Triangle Park, would bring in biotech and pharmaceutical corporations and good-paying jobs.
In 2003, Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings reveled in Scripps’ accomplishments in California when she suggested a West Palm Beach organization for efforts to expand Scripps into Palm Beach County.
“We would possibly be well known as the ones who discovered the cure for cancer,” Jennings said.
The Heads of Government have generously dispensed from taxpayers for this effort.
In 2006, Scripps earned $310 million from the state and $269 million from Palm Beach County taxpayers to build its Campus in Jupiter, which opened in 2009.
The key to the area’s biotechnology center to expand those promised businesses.
To seal the deal, Palm Beach County secured 70 acres of land across from Scripps’ Jupiter campus to allow for the creation of a “biotech village. “Taxpayers paid $16 million for 40 acres of Briger’s former property, while previous landowners donated another 30 acres.
But the biotech village was never built.
The closest Scripps came in 2011 when it tried to bring hospital giant Tenet Healthcare to the site. Tenet is committed to achieving and discovering drugs in collaboration with Scripps at a planned educational medical center.
But the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration rejected the idea of building an 80-bed study hospital in that area and concluded that northern Palm Beach County had enough hospital care.
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Since then, an update in state law states that most of Florida’s new hospitals no longer need state approval.
Instead of biotech and pharmaceutical corporations being developed on site, the still-vacant land was ceded to Scripps in May 2021 for just $1, in line with its agreement with Palm Beach County.
Business leaders who were frustrated with the biotech village that was never built were encouraged to listen to plans to build a hospital and non-profit facility.
This Ray Graziotto, a Jupiter real estate developer and biotechnology funder.
“It’s also close to the promise made in the last 18 years,” Graziotto said.
Alexandra Clough is a business editor at the Palm Beach Post, a component of USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost. com. Twitter: @acloughpbp. Help our journalism. Subscribe today.