AdventHealth wins approval for new Clermont medical campus site plan

The Clermont City Council unanimously approved AdventHealth’s revised site plan on Tuesday as the hospital company sought rezoning for a $35 million medical campus at the intersection of S.R. 50 and Citrus Tower Boulevard.

AdventHealth paid $10.5 million last year for the former Don Mealey Chevrolet campus, which encompassed 18 acres. Initially, the company planned to build its facilities at the southwest corner of the intersection on undeveloped land that had been used by the dealership for overflow parking. The development team shifted the project east of Paloma Road, onto the 11-acres formerly occupied by the showroom and service facility, to avoid having to seek zoning waivers from the city. The property is currently zoned C-2 commercial.

The proposed Planned Unit Development calls for an 18,500-square-foot Free Standing Emergency Department with 24 beds, and a 36,000-square-foot medical office building called a “health park” that will include primary and specialty care practices, imaging, outpatient sports medicine and rehab, and lab services. Both buildings are about 3,000 square feet smaller than the earlier version of the PUD.

Hunton Brady served as the lead architect with Little Diversified as the consulting architect. Klima Weeks is the civil engineer.

Luke Transportation Engineering Consultants provided a traffic study that found the project would create fewer daily trips than a redevelopment under the C-2 zoning.

“It is a privilege to expand our care network to better serve Clermont and the surrounding south Lake County community,” said Abel Biri, president and CEO of AdventHealth Waterman, who will also oversee the Clermont ER. “This growth demonstrates our commitment to provide convenient, exceptional whole person care close to home.”

The Clermont facility will be AdventHealth’s seventh freestanding emergency room/medical office complex in Central Florida. It also has new FSEDs planned in Kissimmee and near Disney, and it recently purchased one in Winter Garden.

The pending project is creating new demand for medical office space in the Clermont submarket. All three office buildings in the Florida Plaza complex, a block away, sold in 2019 for a combined $12.5 million. Last October, Maitland-based V3 Capital Group cited the AdventHealth campus as the driver for its $4.1 million acquisition.

“Health parks represent a dramatic reimagining of the health-care experience,” said Dr. Scott Brady, senior vice president of ambulatory services for the AdventHealth Central Florida Division. “Based on extensive consumer research, AdventHealth health parks will offer our patients a much easier, more convenient experience to access the care they need.”

A construction timeline is being finalized. The ER and health park are expected to open in 2021.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated.

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