The Florida “state bird,” also known as the “tall construction crane” (photo) has been seen making its home at the corner of S.R. 56 and Mansfield/Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., as the foundation of the third hospital to be located in Wesley Chapel — Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital — has now begun vertical construction.
The 46.78-acre parcel, appraised at more than $9 million (at the northeast corner of the traffic signal), has seen activity for a while now, ever since the sign was put up announcing the hospital’s pending construction back in April of 2023. A little over a year later, the vertical components of the building are beginning to take shape.
For large sites, such as a new hospital (and its two affiliated medical office buildings) now under construction, it typically takes a while to start seeing progress, as the land clearing, brine fill dirt, grading, drainage and underground utilities typically take up a significant amount of time. But now, the poured concrete foundational columns and the hospital’s elevator & stair shafts, of at least part of the first floor, are visible at the site.
Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch, which is expected to open sometime in 2026, will be constructed in multiple phases — the initial main building will be built first and then, the “Future Phase 2” for the areas to each side of the main building. There’s also an area in the rear part of the main building where the hospital can be expanded in the future. Ultimate buildout would bring it to around 300 beds total, which will make it the largest of the three hospitals in Wesley Chapel. The hospital’s parking lot will flank both S.R. 56 and Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. The natural wetland towards the rear of the property will remain untouched.
In April of this year, Orlando Health filed additional plans for two standalone medical office buildings — one that will be 90,000 sq. ft. (called “MOB 1”) and the other 60,000 sq. ft. (“MOB 2”), with additional parking in part of the “Future Phase 2” area along Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. (east of the main building).
The vertical construction of the hospital comes on the heels of the announcement in Aug. 2023 that Florida Medical Clinic — with 55 locations and 350 medical providers in 40 disciplines — had merged with/ been purchased by Orlando Health and has been rebranded as “Florida Medical Clinic – Orlando Health.”
The new hospital joins Advent Health Wesley Chapel and BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, which are only 2.5 and 4 miles away, respectively. From a real estate perspective, the trio of local hospitals, plus the planned Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital (located off I-75 at Overpass Rd.), and the establishment of two locations for treating cancer patients — Moffitt Cancer Center at the Advent Health site and Florida Cancer Specialists (see story on pg. 12) — has made the Wesley Chapel area a hub for nearby medical care. This already has put Wesley Chapel on the map and will continue to bring everyone from young families to aging retirees to our area for that convenience.
(Above) BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel held its official ribbon-cutting on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Feb. 2023, while (below) Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital broke ground on Wesley Chapel’s largest hospital earlier this year.
1. Hospitals In The News —
Although its actual ten-year anniversary was in 2022, a number of things caused AdventHealth Wesley Chapel to postpone its 10-year celebration until Feb. 2023, which would, on its own, be pretty big news for Wesley Chapel.
However, Feb. 2023 also saw the opening of Wesley Chapel’s second hospital — the 86-bed BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, less than two miles north of AdventHealth, which also brought the community out in force to check out the new hospital’s advanced technology.
But wait, that’s not all! Later in 2023, Orlando Health broke ground on its own Wesley Chapel location on S.R. 56 at Wiregrass Ranch Bvd. With its 300 beds, the multi-story Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital will be Wesley Chapel’s largest.
At our press time, the site work for the new hospital was well under way, although vertical construction had not yet begun. We also did not yet have an estimated opening date, but it’s unlikely the new hospital will be completed and opened before 2025.
And finally, John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital announced its plans to build a 356,000-sq.-ft. pediatric hospital at the Wildcat-Bailes site on Overpass Rd. (at McKendree Rd.) near I-75 in the “Connected City” project, although an exact number of beds had not yet been announced, nor was the deal finalized at our press time.
2. Overpass Rd. Exit Off I-75 Opens —
In the entire 30+ years the Neighborhood News has been in business, Wesley Chapel originally only had one exit off of I-75 — Exit #279 at S.R. 54 — and received its second exit, Exit #275, at the new S.R. 56 about a decade ago.
The new Exit 282 off of I-75 at Overpass Rd. opened in Jan 2023.
Since then, there has been no exit off I-75 between S.R. 54’s Exit 279 and Exit 285 at S.R. 54 in the San Antonio/Dade City area.
That remained true until Jan. of this year, when the new Exit 282 off I-75 opened at the new Overpass Rd. extension (see photo right), which finally connected Overpass from Old Pasco Rd. all the way to Epperson, Curley Rd. and even beyond, through the Watergrass community. Overpass Rd. will one day connect to Handcart Rd. in Zephyrhills.
The new exit has done a pretty good job of helping to reduce rush-hour traffic at the S.R. 54 exit and is definitely stimulating new growth in and around the area — growth that not all local residents are thrilled about.
Among the new development swirling around the new exit is the previously mentioned Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, as well as a possible multi-family or mixed-use development at the corner of Overpass, I-75 and Old Pasco Rd.
We’ll keep you posted.
3. Saddlebrook Redevelopment Plan Approved —
Saddlebrook Resort and the community that sprouted up around it became the first large-scale development in Wesley Chapel when owner and former Pendant Publishing founder Tom Dempsey developed it in the early 1980s.
More than 40 years later, Dempsey’s resort and the surrounding community had lost a lot of their lustre and the resort, in particular, had fallen into disarray.
A rendering of Mast Capital’s redevelopment plan for Saddlebrook Resort, which was approved by Pasco County in July of this year.
After multiple previous attempts to purchase and improve the 480-acre resort and surrounding community fell through, Mast Capital finally succeeded in not only purchasing the resort, but getting its $15-million redevelopment/rezoning plans approved by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners, after making a number of concessions in order to come to an agreement with many existing Saddlebrook residents.
One of the big sticking points was that Mast planned to convert the two 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed championship golf courses into 27 holes of golf.
Another important aspect of Mast’s plan was a significant amount of new development, including multi-family units, along S.R. 54 both east and west of the community’s main entrance on Saddlebrook Way at 54.
The redevelopment of Saddlebrook should begin in earnest in 2024.
4. Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. Opens —
Normally, interior roadways primarily serving only one community would probably not qualify as one of the biggest news stories of the year, especially in an area still growing as quickly as is Wesley Chapel.
Wiregrass Ranch. Blvd. has been open from S.R. 56 all the way to S.R. 54 since August of 2023.
However, in the case of Wiregrass Ranch. Blvd., because the roadway itself had been paved for what seemed like more than a year and had people who were living in the Estancia and other Wiregrass Ranch subdivisions using the roadway illegally to go from S.R. 56 and Chancey Rd. to the Walmart on S.R. 54. for many months — moving and then replacing the barricades located next to Walmart — the official opening of the entire nearly four-mile length of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. in Aug. 2023 certainly was big news.
Next up in Wiregrass Ranch is the eastward extension of Chancey Rd. (which runs east-west through the center of Wiregrass Ranch) all the way to Meadow Pointe Blvd.
5a. Downtown Avalon Park Begins Leasing —
The site plan for the new Downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.
More than just another commercial or multi-family development, the long-awaited Downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel is the first in our area to combine both. Only a few of the retail tenants on the ground floor of the first “neotraditional” building in the downtown area have been announced since the Aug. 17 Open House that unveiled the construction of that new building — including Prime Barbershop, Rita’s Italian Ice, Rudraksh Indian Cuisine and ISI Elite Training. All of these businesses are expected to begin opening sometime in the first quarter of 2024.
5b. Wesley Chapel’s Contract Postal Unit Closes & Opens In New Location —
A lot of locals (us included) were sad when long-time Wesley Chapel Contract Postal Unit (CPU) contractor Kelly Rossi retired and closed her location on Boyette Rd. at the end of Jan.
The NTBC ribbon cutting for the relocated Wesley Chapel Contract Postal Unit.
Then, we were even sadder to see how long it took new contractors Jevon and Cindy Williams to reopen the Wesley Chapel CPU in its new location in the Freedom Plaza on S.R. 54 in September.
Hopefully, Jevon and Cindy are now recuperating from the CPU’s holiday rush.
We also considered for the top-5…The opening of Cooper’s Hawk, the takeover by Pasco County of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus from RADDSports and the one-year anniversary of the KRATE Container Park. — GN
