Orlando health care system plans Lakewood Ranch expansion

A health care system with a presence across central Florida, Orlando Health, is looking to expand south along the Gulf Coast.

Officials with the organization, one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in Florida, declined to provide details on the project. (The project goes back at least three years, as Orlando Health purchased nearly 32 acres off State Road 70 at Crossland Trail in Lakewood Ranch for $12 million in April 2022, Manatee County property records show.)

While Orlando Health officials were mum on the plans, in a Monday interview a developer building a medical office building nearby on Silver Falls Run says the organization is planning to build a hospital there. Also, a neighboring commercial real estate listing says "there is a pending 31-acre Orlando Health hospital" adjacent to the site.

“Orlando Health is in the planning process for the facilities and services it will bring to this community," Sandra Bentil, spokesperson for Orlando Health, says in an email to the Business Observer, a sister publication. "We look forward to sharing details as they become available.”

In recent years, Orlando Health has been expanding its reach along the Gulf Coast. Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital is under construction in Wesley Chapel, while Orlando Health Lakeland Hospital is being built in Polk County; both are expected to open in 2026. Currently, there are no Orlando Health facilities in Manatee County.

Orlando Health is a private, nonprofit health care organization serving Florida, Puerto Rico and Alabama. It has more than $14 billion of assets under management; receives 994,000-plus ER visits a year at its 48 hospitals and ERs; handles more than 8 million outpatient visits a year; and employs over 42,000.

This article originally appeared on sister site BusinessObserverFL.com.