There’s no doubt that the Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital will be the single largest addition to Wiregrass Ranch this year, but there are multiple other projects that also are expected to be completed and open before the end of 2026 in the 5,000-acre property owned by the Porter Family Trust. We told you about the 46,000-sq.-ft. Wiregrass Medical Plaza (left photo) being developed by Flagship Healthcare Properties (in conjunction with the Porters’ Locust Branch Development) last issue, which will have Florida E.N.T. as its anchor tenant.Â
What we didn’t know about at that time, is the two-story, 50-bed in-patient injury rehabilitation facility that will be called Encompass Health Rehab Hospital being constructed by Brasfield & Gorrie (top photo), across from the Wiregrass Medical Plaza, closer to S.R. 56. Both of these buildings are separate from the Orlando Health hospital’s medical buildings.Â
We also told you back in October about the Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch apartments, the 320- unit luxury rental community now under construction behind the planned Publix near the intersection of S.R. 54 and Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., across from Walmart. As you can see in the photo right, those apartments have now gone vertical.Â
Much closer to completion, however, is the 50,000-sq.-ft. Post Acute Medical (PAM) Rehabilitation Hospital (below) directly to the north of the Amberlin apartments on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. We first told you about PAM Rehab back in March of 2024 and although the building is looking pretty close to being completed, we were not yet able to find out a planned opening date for it, but we’ll keep you posted.Â
Also not too far from being completed is the Ace Medical Plaza (bottom photo), a 15,000-sq.-ft. medical office building located between the entrance to Amberlin and BBD, across from Eagleston Blvd.Â
What we sadly don’t have yet is the information everyone wants — the name of the upscale restaurant(s) that will be built next to Cooper’s Hawk and when the selection of the contractor and the construction of Legacy at Wiregrass Ranch, the community’s “downtown hub” will begin. Hopefully, we’ll have that information by sometime later this year, but we’re pretty sure that those highly-anticipated developments will not be completed by the end of 2026. — GN
Hospital That Will One Day Be The Largest In Wesley Chapel Gets Ready To Open Apr. 21 With A Hiring EventÂ
Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital — Opening April 21!Â
With everything that’s coming to Wesley Chapel this year, perhaps the biggest addition is the Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital, which has tabbed Tuesday, April 21, as its scheduled opening date.
The new hospital — the third in Wesley Chapel (AdventHealth WC and BayCare WC are the others) will open with 102 beds, with room to expand to 300 beds in the future, which would make it Wesley Chapel’s largest.
In anticipation of the hospital’s opening, Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, located less than a half-mile away from the facility, hosted a hiring event which attracted hundreds of potential employees — everyone from nurses and nursing support professionals to allied health and support staffers.
We also got to meet many of the hospital’s team leaders, including (l.-r. in the right photo) talent acquisition manager Richard Pelaia, chief nursing officer and assistant vice president Susan Dolezal, chief financial officer and assistant VP Tanya Knepp, director of human resources Jennifer Alexander and Richard Matte, the assistant VP of business development & non-clinical operations.Â
Charmaine also got drone photos of the cleared land for the two large medical office buildings to be built on the hospital’s campus (above left), which should begin going vertical soon.Â
So, as we’ve previously reported, despite all of the new stuff and everything that has already been built, the Wiregrass Ranch development is still at less than 40% of its approved capacity.
But, with the Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital nearing completion, that number is going to rise and it will also bring two affiliated medical office buildings into the fold in the future.
But now, Wiregrass Ranch, the Porter family and its Locust Branch Development are partnering with Flagship Healthcare Properties (which is based in Charlotte, NC) to begin building a separate 46,000-sq.-ft. medical outpatient building (rendering below) within walking distance of the second hospital to open in Wiregrass Ranch.
On Dec. 9, Flagship and Wiregrass Ranch hosted a groundbreaking event at the site of that new medical office building, which will have as its anchor tenant Florida E.N.T. (Ear, Nose, Throat) & Allergy. Those entities were joined by Precise Construction, Ardurra Engineering, Kasper Architects & Assoc. and Atlantic Union Bank for the groundbreaking, which was led by Flagship’s executive VP of development Dev Gregg (4th from left in photo, above), who first thanked everyone involved in the project.Â
“All we build are medical outpatient projects,” Gregg said. “We have been working on this project for about three years and are proud to be here today.”
Gregg also thanked Florida E.N.T., “(Physician partner) Scott Powell and his team. Florida E.N.T. will occupy 12,000 sq. ft. of the building and is also a partner in the project. We’re really proud to be working with them.”
He then thanked JD Porter and Scott Sheridan (5th & 6th from the left in the top photo) of Locust Branch. “They’ve been wonderful to work with. It’s harder and harder to put these projects together, but they’re partnering with us on this project and we’re excited to have it come out of the ground.”Â
He added that, “We’re looking forward to this project being an asset to the community, the health care providers in the area and the patients.”
Coming to 2557 Mansfield Blvd. at Wiregrass School Rd., in the Mansfield Wesley Chapel Shopping Center plaza next to 7-11 that also has MH Nail Studio and Enterprise Rent-A-Car (see map), Tien’s Sandwich will be a 2,066-sq.-ft. shop that will bring “the authentic taste of Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches to Wesley Chapel — “fresh, vibrant & full of heart” and also will feature coffee, boba tea and other comfort bites. According to its Instagram page, the Vietnamese sandwich place’s slogan is, “Good bread, good mood.”
At our deadline, the vacant store still had a dirt floor, so there’s no telling how long it will be before Tien’s Sandwich actually opens.
Rendering of the resort-style pool at the under-construction Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch apartments. (Rendering from ThirdLakeDevelopment.com)Â
It seems that there’s never a shortage of news coming out of Wiregrass Ranch these days, so we always try to check in with developer JD Porter and his development right hand man, Scott Sheridan, the chief operating officer of Locust Branch, LLC, to get the latest news.
After all, the 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch already has The Shops at Wiregrass mall, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Hospital, the Porter Campus of Pasco Hernando State College, more than 3,000 single-family homes (and townhomes) and 1,400 rental apartment units.
Wiregrass Ranch also is home to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, The Beach House assisted living community, Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS), Moffitt Cancer Center and North Tampa Behavioral Health, and coming soon are the Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital, two Orlando Health-owned medical office buildings totalling 150,000 sq. ft., a PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital and two additional medical office buildings that Wiregrass Ranch will develop in partnership with Flagship Healthcare Properties, and what Porter says will one day be Wesley Chapel’s true downtown — The Legacy at Wiregrass Ranch.
Publix could soon begin building its new location east of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. earlier this year. Map locations: 1-Chili’s, 2-Chase Bank, 3-Bank of Amer., 4-Advance Auto Parts, 5-Sweet Nail Spa, Mathnasium, Pizza Hut & Starbucks (Map from Publix plans submitted to Pasco County, modified by NN).Â
One of the big things people keep asking me (and online) is about the new Publix planned for the east side of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., just north and east of Walmart (see map above left) on a 9.5-acre site appraised at $3.97 million.
Of that 48,848-sq.-ft. Publix (with a 2,100-sq.-ft. liquor store), which is being built in front of the newest apartment community — Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch — the main thing most people want to know is whether or not the opening of that new Publix will cause the existing store in the Hollybrook Plaza (less than a half-mile away) to close. Neither Sheridan nor Porter would address that question directly, but Sheridan says, “Final permitting [of the new Publix] is under way now, and I expect them to break ground by early next year. We have no direct knowledge of [Publix’s] intent to close the old store when they build the new one.” The site plan for the new Publix shows its main entrance lining up directly opposite the northern entrance to Walmart.
Although most people appear to agree that it seems a little crazy to have two Publixes located so close to each other, we have heard some online chatter that says the Hollybrook Publix will definitely close, while others say that it definitely won’t close. Without confirmation either way from Publix or the Wiregrass Ranch team, it seems ludicrous to me to speculate either way.
But, speaking of Publix, Porter did mention the possibility of another link in the Lakeland-based supermarket chain coming to the area near the new FCS building on S.R. 56, but Sheridan cautioned that although he had seen a post on Facebook that a preapplication meeting had been scheduled, “there has been nothing from us directly on this.”
Also important to note is that if another Publix is coming to S.R. 56 in Wiregrass Ranch, that possible location is not the Publix planned for the front of the Two Rivers development five miles or so further to the east on 56.
In the meantime, the Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch apartments have not yet gone vertical, but the 15-acre parcel (valued at $7.04 million) has been cleared to build the 320-unit luxury rental community and its resort-style pool, EV charging stations and more, which will be the seventh Arcadia project (and the third in Florida) for Tampa-based Third Lake Development.
As for the planned medical offices near the Orlando Health hospital, Sheridan says that the first 46,000-sq.-ft. Wiregrass Ranch Medical Pavilion (rendering above), in partnership with Flagship Healthcare Properties, is getting ready to break ground before the end of this year.Â
“The second phase will move forward once the initial building is completed and fully leased,” Sheridan says.
As for the two Florida Medical Clinic/ Orlando Health medical office buildings (MOBs), Sheridan says, “The hospital is expected to open by April of 2026. We expect the MOBs would be under construction soon but can’t say for sure. They are just now completing all of the site work for both of those.”
Sheridan also said that Wiregrass Ranch is, “coordinating with Mast Capital on their requirement to build the Bypass Loop road within Wiregrass Ranch from S.R. 54 to Wiregrass Ranch Blvd.” as part of Mast’s redevelopment of Saddlebrook Resort (see pg. 44). “But we are not engaged or aware of their developments within the resort.”
New Restaurants? Although the rumor mill has said that The Tilted Kilt, a Winghouse/ Hooters-style sports pub could be the still-unnamed restaurant planned for next to Cooper’s Hawk, Porter told me that although they have had discussions with The Tilted Kilt, it definitely will not be the restaurant built next to Cooper’s Hawk.
Meanwhile, Sheridan says, “We are working on several upscale restaurants along the S.R. 56 corridor including next to Cooper’s Hawk, which, we are told, is consistently the #1 or #2 restaurant in that chain.”
But of course, perhaps the most anticipated development in Wiregrass Ranch is The Legacy, which Porter keeps saying will be the only “true” downtown development in Wesley Chapel, and which will tie together everything already built and still planned for the Porter family’s sprawling cattle ranch. So, is there any Legacy news?
“We are exploring that now with potential partners but have not committed any timing yet,” Sheridan says.
