Tag Archive for: florida atlantic university

former FAU site in deerfield beach

Commissioners last week unanimously accepted a development proposal for the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) acreage that will, if approved by voters in March, pay the city $6.5 million, contribute another $7.5 million in community improvements and construct a multi use building housing a medical complex, hotel, workforce housing, event and entertainment space, and commercial tenants.

The four acres at Southwest 10 Street and Southwest 11 Way, at the entrance to I-95, have been vacant for decades and until last year were under lease to the Florida Atlantic Research and Development Park.

In refusing to extend the partnership with FAU, city officials opted to hire a marketing firm to pitch the property to developers. Colliers International was given the task and produced six qualified candidates. The city’s selection committee two weeks ago ranked MBA Development Partners, based on Boca Raton, as the number one bidder.

Said Ken Krasnow, representing Colliers, “MBA is the clear favorite. This is a true live, work, play development. Their intent is to create a statement for Deerfield Beach.”

He presented a four-year development schedule that would have the building leasing the 120 apartment units in 2027. MBA already has created a program to educate the community about the project prior to the 2023 election and the ballot language has been prepared.

Also planned for the building, a medical tower, 105-room hotel, 20,000 square feet of restaurant/entertainment space, and parking garage. The project is being priced out now at $178 million.

The medical tenants are known to the developer, Krasnow said, but those identities are currently protected by a confidentiality agreement. What is known, he said, is that the Marriott brand will operate the hotel and a well-known real estate company will manage the living units.

“Every space is spoken for,” a representative of the developer said.

To City Commissioner Todd Drosky’s observation that the city had hoped to attract a national developer, Krasnow said, “You have national brands with a local presence.” Drosky also pushed Krasnow to reveal the proposed medical tenant saying, “We have only one shot at this . . . We want a dynamo that will energize the area.”

Vice Mayor Ben Preston said in their presentation to staff that “MBA said all the right things . . . It’s a homerun.”

The Boca Raton-based developer is a privately-held real estate company who has partnered with others to develop $4 billion in real estate projects.

 

Source:  New Pelican

Scientists arabic team at modern hospital lab, group of doctors

Two years after the Legislature dissolved rules that restricted the opening of new hospitals and major bed expansions at existing ones, changes to the health care landscape are taking shape.

The rollback of the Certificate of Need (CON) law creates growth opportunities for health systems that could lead to big capital spending on construction and medical equipment, while boosting access to health care in neighborhoods without enough providers.

Several local hospital systems are already considering expansions with new facilities.

However, the question is whether the new hospitals will improve the health care system or only add to the higher costs that are making insurance coverage more expensive for many companies. Some critics warn that employee bidding wars between expanding health care systems could drive up costs.

What shouldn’t be overlooked is that removing the CON requirement will allow existing hospitals to expand their bed count, which is less expensive than building new hospitals, said Ray Berry, CEO of Cooper City-based Health Business Solutions, which helps hospitals deal with claims.

He doesn’t expect new competitors to enter the Broward County market because they would be at a disadvantage when negotiating with insurance companies that have established hospital partners there, said Berry, a board member of the North Broward Hospital District, which governs Broward Health.

With all the residential development in Fort Lauderdale, Broward Health Medical Center should eventually grow to accommodate the population, he said.

South Florida already has plenty of beds to accommodate its population, so new hospitals could end up lowering bed occupancy rates for other hospitals, said Salvatore Barbera, associate director of the health care administration program at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business.

Instead of lowering prices to compete for patients, hospitals may end up raising prices to cover their operating costs with fewer patients, he added.

“It’s probably going to stir up the market, and you may see some failed operations as a result,” said Barbera, a former hospital CEO.

 

Click here to read more about this story.

 

Scripps Research 760x320

Scripps Research is in talks to merge its Jupiter-based biomedical operation with the University of Florida‘s academic health center’s research division in a relationship that pairs private and public institutions.

In 2003, Scripps expanded to Florida on a 30-acre campus adjacent to Florida Atlantic University. Officials said Thursday this merger will spur cooperation with other institutions in Florida, including FAU.

Florida paid Scripps $310 million to open a Florida lab in an effort to entice biotech firms to the state, and Palm Beach County added $269 million.

Then Gov. Jeb Bush had envisioned 50,000 jobs in 15 years. Though the goal has not been met, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience later came to Jupiter. Scripps has grown to 40 faculty-led laboratories supported by a 500-member team, achieving the promising of that many jobs.

In addition, Palm Beach County bought 70 acres of vacant land for $70 million across from Scripps in Palm Beach Gardens with an intention of developing a “biotech village.” Scripps has been leasing the land, known as the Briger tract, for $1 per year and an option to have the deed transferred to the biotech company. The property hasn’t been developed and other portions of the Briger property have been sold for commercial and resident development, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Officials predict the University of Florida-Scripps relationship will generate additional jobs in expanding economic development.

“Our shared vision for propelling biomedical research forward is based on the great mutual respect our two institutions have for each other,” said Dr. Peter Schultz, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Scripps Research based in La Jolla, California.

 

“UF is an outstanding partner for Scripps Florida — the two institutions have complementary basic and translational research capabilities and strengths which, when combined, will enhance their collective reputation and impact on Florida,” Schultz added. “We have built an outstanding research institute in Scripps Florida with generous support from the state and from local communities and we believe it will have its biggest impact on Florida and greatest opportunity for further growth as part of UF, one of the country’s leading research and educational institutions.”

Shared research could potentially include cancer, drug discovery, immunology and infectious disease, neuroscience, including Alzheimer’s disease and other aging-related disorders, as well as and structural biology and molecular medicine.

UF has spent $942 million in research expenditures during the past fiscal year, including $143 million in National Institute of Health grants, which is tops in the state. Scripps has received $33 million from NIH.

UF already has research collaborations with Scripps.

The agreement will build on that relationship by capitalizing on each of their strengths, said Dr. David R. Nelson, M.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health, the university’s academic health center.

UF and Scripps Research plan to name Patrick Griffin, Ph.D., to lead the joint operation. Griffin is now chairman of the department of molecular medicine at Scripps Florida and directs its Translational Research Institute.

“Our shared vision focuses on improving the health of humanity and developing innovations to optimize quality of life,” Nelson said. “With this venture, we will both be positioned to take medical research to the next level in a way that is win-win for the people of Florida and beyond.”

University of Florida President Kent Fuchs said this relationship can spur relationships with other state university-system institutions, including FAU and Florida International.

“This would be the next logical step, adding to the impact Scripps Research has already made in Florida,” Fuchs said. “They have been great stewards of the state’s investment in biotech, and we look forward to partnering on this next phase to add value and grow additional research and tech collaborations.”

 

“This news is welcome because it aligns with the commitment of Florida’s public universities to work together for the greater good. FAU is looking forward to expanding on our existing collaborations with UF and Scripps Florida by identifying educational and research opportunities that leverage our shared strengths,” FAU president John Kelly, Ph.D., said. “These include exploring common interests in areas like autism, neuroscience, molecular biology and data science to advance medicine.”

The University of Florida has collaborated with FAU and other universities on the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

In 2020, 1Florida ADRC received a five-year $15 million NIH grant to expand its work with a heightened focus on further understanding dementias in diverse populations.

The University of Florida and FAU also have collaborated on the NIH-funded National Drug Early Warning System coordinating center to identify emerging drug abuse trends.

Scripps announced in March one of its researchers, Dr. Michael Farzan, was in the process of developing a COVID-19 vaccine that is broken down to powder, shipped to delivery sites without refrigeration and mixed with water before injecting individuals.

Farzan is the chairman of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute.

 

Source:  WPTV

Boca Regional-Marcus Neuroscience Institute

During the next five years, Boca Raton Regional Hospital may change as much or more than it has in the previous 50 years.
The hospital’s proposed parking garage—more about that in the next item—is the first of four projects designed to transform Boca Regional. The others are a second tower, new operating rooms and a new power plant. CEO Jerry Fedele estimates the cost at $260 million.
Fedele came in 2008 as the third CEO in 10 months. The hospital had lost $120 million, mainly stemming from the attempt two years earlier to create a $600 million academic center. After Fedele and the team he brought stabilized the finances, they changed the name from Boca Community to Boca Regional.
Since then, the hospital’s core market has expanded beyond the city. Vice President Dan Sacco said the market now runs from Pompano Beach in Broward County to Lake Worth. As the market has grown, so has Boca Regional’s share of the market. Even as competitors tout their emergency rooms, Boca Regional has grown from 35,000 annual ER visits to 55,000. Previously, Fedele said, only about 100 of the roughly 400 beds might be occupied on an average day in the summer. “Now, we’re at 300-plus consistently. We’re much less seasonal.” He and I spoke last Thursday. The day before, Fedele said, “We were full.”
Meanwhile, in the last 11 years Boca Regional has started an open-heart surgery center and opened the Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute, the Marcus Neuroscience Institute and the Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute. A new robotic surgery program has three such devices that cost $2 million each. The Gloria Drummond Physical Rehabilitation Institute—named for the woman whose family tragedy led her to found the hospital— will open this year.
So Boca Regional has a stunning list of outpatient services, but what Fedele calls “capacity problems” for inpatient services. Many rooms are still semi-private, and what Fedele calls the hospital’s increasingly “sophisticated patient population” wants is private rooms. Over the last seven years, he said, Boca Raton Regional Hospital “has fundamentally changed.”
Accordingly, the projects will help the hospital meet those new demands. Eighty percent of the beds will be private. In practical terms, Fedele said, the hospital operates with 350 beds. If Boca Regional can replace the parking lot with the garage, it will shorten the distance patients must travel to the main entrance. Most would get there by using an air-conditioned bridge.
The new tower would be on the north side, out to Meadows Road, and the hospital would renovate the existing tower. Fedele would like work on the garage to begin next spring and be finished by the start of high season, and for work on the towers to begin in 2019.
In almost any other similarly sized area of the United States, much of this would not be possible. Fedele said Boca Regional ran a surplus of between $7 million and $10 million in its most recent budget year on revenue of about $450 million. At non-profit hospitals, Fedele said, health care is a low-margin business. Because of the philanthropic base in and around Boca Raton, however, the hospital doesn’t have to pay for the improvements out of its operating surplus.
But while retaining that community identity, Boca Regional has widened its appeal and reputation. Affluent snowbirds who once flew home for advanced care are having it here. Turmoil at the North Broward Hospital District makes Boca Regional a better option for patients south of the county line. The relationship with Florida Atlantic University’s medical school is growing.
Between the planned improvement and the new programs, nearly half a billion dollars could flow into Boca Raton Regional Hospital over 15 years. How lucky that protests 20 years ago prevented the board at that time from selling the hospital. Despite that fundamental change, Boca Regional remains Boca’s own.

Hospital Garage

The hospital’s proposed garage got a favorable recommendation from the Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board, but the neighbors aren’t happy.
Before the 4-2 vote, homeowners who live across the canal from the current parking lot complained about potential noise, exhaust fumes and excessive light. Some said their property values have been dropping and would drop if the hospital got permission to replace the roughly 200 surface spaces with 900 spaces in a 50-foot garage that could be 100 feet from their homes, rather than the 250 feet that otherwise would be required.
Some speakers made unreasonable suggestions. Example: build the garage on the north, which would force patients to cross Meadows Road. Some wondered if the garage would benefit employees more than patients, since the hospital moved about 300 employees from the lot to the nearby garage at Oaks Plaza on Glades Road. A hospital representative said “some” employees would return.
Mostly, though, the neighbors don’t like the size and the proximity. Indeed, 100 feet is pretty close. But as I reported last week, the hospital could build its planned second tower at that location. The tower would be nearly 150 feet tall. Property records show that values of the homes across the canal have been rising, not falling. Though Boca Regional was much different when it opened in 1967, the hospital likely predates many of the homes.
And the need is obvious. Board member Janice Rustin noted the times that she had been unable to find a parking space. Boca Regional also is not the usual developer seeking a change from the city. The hospital holds near-iconic status, which was reflected in the comments from some board members.
Still, the neighbors likely will turn out in big numbers when the proposal goes to the city council. That could happen next month.
Source: BocaMag