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Lee Health Responding To Growth In Cape Coral With Slate Of Projects

Lee Health has numerous projects in the works to address health care needs in fast-growing Cape Coral.

They range from adding physician offices so more specialty services are closer to home for residents, including pediatric care, to expansions at Cape Coral Hospital, according to Dave Kistel, vice president and chief facilities executive.

The board for the publicly-operated hospital system recently approved a contract amendment to expand the Surfside Medical Facility at Veterans Parkway and Surfside Boulevard. The total project cost is $10.4 million and is targeted for completion in January 2024.

The phase-two project involves adding 15,000 square feet of space to the two-story outpatient complex.

Specialists employed by Lee Physician Group in orthopedics, endocrinology, rheumatology, and rehabilitation medicine will go into the new space.

Lee Physician Group currently does not have specialists in orthopedics or endocrinology in Cape Coral so that will become a first in both fields, Kistel said. Rheumatologists have been part time and will become available full time, he said. Outpatient-based rehabilitation medicine has been available at Cape Coral Hospital but is maxed out so the expansion at Surfside will offer a second location.

Overall the expansion of Surfside will mean some patients won’t need to commute to Fort Myers for specialty care with Lee Physician Group and wait times to see other specialists will improve, Kistel said.

Cape Coral Growing By Leaps And Bounds

Cape Coral and its geographic area of 120 square miles has faced steady population growth and is now the eighth largest city in Florida with 204,510 residents, up from 154,305 residents in 2010. City leaders in 2021 projected 50-year growth to 430,000 residents.

Forbes Magazine last year ranked Cape Coral as the fourth best place to live in Florida, ahead of Orlando at fifth place and Miami as the sixth best place to live. The first three are Tampa, Jacksonville, and Gainesville.

Forbes pegged median income of Cape residents at around $62,000 and the median home price at $479,000.

Therese Everly, Lee Health board member whose district includes Cape Coral, said the hospital system is committed to expanding services and access to health care throughout the region as Southwest Florida continues to grow.

“This is a very exciting time in Cape Coral as we have several new projects underway,” she said. “Cape Coral Hospital is the foundation of healthcare in the community, and we’re proud to be investing in innovative projects in the Cape, such as Bimini Basin, which is community-based.”

There’s been positive impact bringing internal medicine residency program through Florida State University College of Medicine to Cape Coral, she said.

“Through this residency program and clinic, Lee Health is developing well-educated, highly trained physicians, creating greater accessibility to needed care in the community,” Everly said.

What Else Is In The Works?

The 291-bed Cape hospital is getting some add-ons to keep up with both inpatient and outpatient demand.

Twelve more beds are being added to the intensive care unit by adding a second floor above radiology with a nearly 11,000-square-foot addition. The cost is $13.5 million and work has started. The addition will bring the ICU bed count to 34.
The dialysis center is doubling in size when it moves from the first floor to the second floor adjacent to the new 12-bed ICU. That project cost is $2.8 million. Occupancy is expected at the end of February 2024.
Cardiology services on the first floor is expanding to another area. The project cost is $4 million. It is targeted for completion in summer 2024.
12 to 14 more bays in the emergency room will be added using the space that will become available when the dialysis center and cardiology projects are done. No budget yet.
Six bays for “fast track” patients in the emergency room were recently completed. The cost was $1.2 million. The Cape Coral Hospital Auxiliary contributed $500,000 toward the cost.
Plans are in the works to renovate space for more obstetrics services at the hospital by Lee Physicians Group.
A “complex care clinic” for discharged patients so they avoid being readmitted will be added to the Cape hospital. A similar clinic operates at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers.

Plans For South Cape Coral Are On The Drawing Board

Lee Health is planning to lease 47,000 square feet of building space in the future $100 million Bimini Basin project that is in the works by a developer in south Cape Coral.

The Cape Coral City Council approved rezoning and the master concept in February for the mixed-use development with apartments, a waterfront restaurant and shops on three sites south of Cape Coral Parkway.

The plan in the leased space is to offer laboratory services, radiology, women’s breast and health care and adult cardiology. The space also will be used for pediatric services in primary care, rehabilitation medicine and behavioral health.

“It’s a pretty substantial complement of physicians at that site,” Kistel said.

When Lee Health will gain access to the leased space depends on the developer’s time line for construction, he said.

Source: Naples Daily News

March 20, 2023/by ADMIN

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Health Care Development Boom To Increase Accessibility In Cape Coral

There will be more places to get the medical care you need in Southwest Florida, as multiple health care systems have announced plans to add more resources in Cape Coral.

At Pine Island Road and Pondella Road in Cape Coral, Encompass Health is in the process of building a 40-bed inpatient care facility.

Down the road, Lee Health plans to expand the only hospital currently in the city.

Lee Health’s vice president of facilities and support services, Dave Kistel, said all these projects are not a coincidence.

“Cape Coral is continuing to grow, attracting a lot of new residents. The need to grow and add services is there and so we’re adding those services to support the community’s health care needs,” he explained.

That’s why Lee Health is investing $150 million to expand its hospital system.

“One of the first projects that we’re going to get started on is a six bay expansion to our existing emergency department,” Kistel said. “The next project, we will be adding 12 intensive care unit beds in Cape Coral.”

They also have plans to expand their Surfside outpatient facility and build a new building near Bimini Basin.

And if that’s not enough to help with the growth, Lee Health has plans to turn a 23-acre plot of land at SW Pine Island Road and Veterans Parkway into an innovative health care facility.

That could mean less drive time for Sara Warnecke. “Anything that’s closer to home is always a benefit when you don’t have to drive and less traffic to get there.

And provide those who live in Cape Coral, with more options.

Source: WINK News

October 20, 2021/by ADMIN

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Cape Coral Slated To Land Victory Park Hotel, Medical Office, Warehouse Space Project

Plans are in the works for Cape Coral to get a massive, 140-acre commercial development project called Victory Park.

Blue Waters Development Group LLC announced the plans last week to anchor the project with a 125-room Wyndham Garden hotel, commercial space and 110,000 square feet of warehouse and medical office space at 2313 NE 24th Ave.

The southeastern-most lot, sitting at the northwest corner of Diplomat Parkway and NE 24th Avenue, could become a beacon of construction activity sometime later this year. It is just next door to the Veterans Administration clinic.

“The VA medical center is bringing over 350,000 patients per year on a regular basis,” said Danny Aguirre, manager of Blue Waters Development, which was established in Cape Coral about two years ago. Aguirre said he previously developed projects on the east coast of Florida. This will be the group’s first project in Cape Coral.

“The army reserve base is doing reserve troop training on a monthly basis on the weekends,” Aguirre said of another draw to the hotel. “That is a driver that we felt competent in being able to service them by putting a quality hotel product there.”

Aguirre said he wasn’t sure on a timetable for breaking ground. He remained hopeful to do so by mid-summer if not sooner.

“With COVID going on, it just set the permitting process in a tailspin,” Aguirre said. “We really don’t know. With some of the workers working remotely, it’s going to be what it needs to be. I wish I could set a timeline to it. If we can get it taken care of by the second quarter or third quarter, we’d like to move forward in that direction.”

The hotel would be the first phase of what could become a major development, as the land stretches north to where Kismet Parkway becomes Littleton Road at NE 24th Avenue. The property continues east to Corbett Road.

The northernmost lot sold for $2.3 million in July 2019, purchased by Alex Diaz Trust according to Lee County property records.

The same trust went on to purchase the southern two parcels for $5 million and $3.6 million in September 2019, records show.

Real estate broker Steve Komondorea of Real America Realty is handling pre-leasing for the office and warehouse space.

The new development will feed off the V.A. clinic and form a synergy with it, he said.

“It has the second-highest volume of veteran appointments in the state of Florida,” Komondorea said. “We have had conversations with the people who are directing the V.A. Clinic. We wanted to be a compliment to them. So veterans who come with family members, they will have a place to put up their heels. That was one of the main inspirations to do this at that location.”

Blue Waters is marketing the development in preparing for groundbreaking.

“We want medical professionals to know that we have this medical facility coming up,” said Komondorea, who hopes medical professionals will recognize that area could fulfill a need.

“There’s some things the VA does, and there’s some things the VA doesn’t,” he said. “We’d like to be able to generate interest to compliment what they do. We’ll be working real hard to develop a quality product.”

Source: News-Press

January 27, 2021/by ADMIN