Cleveland is now in the process of purchasing land for the hospital.
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A plot of land once envisioned as the site of a Parkland elementary school could become the future site of a Broward Health medical complex.
The hospital system, operated by the taxpayer-funded North Broward Hospital District, is seeking to acquire from the Broward School District a 10-acre parcel at the southwest corner of University Drive and Trails End Drive in Parkland.
The School Board bought the land for $5.85 million in 2005 with plans to build a new elementary school. The city of Parkland contributed $850,000 toward that purchase. But the project was one of many that got shelved during the recession a few years later.
Parkland is one of the few areas of the county where schools remain crowded and there’s a demand for more facilities. But the state won’t allow the district to build any new schools because it already has 54,100 empty seats elsewhere in the county where students could attend.
Broward Health already acquired a 7-acre site directly adjacent to the land, paying $14.5 million in 2020, according to the Broward Property Appraiser’s website. That land and the school district’s property both remain vacant.
The hospital system would like to create a complex with a specialty care physician practice clinic within the next three to five years, David Clark, senior vice president of operations of the hospital district, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The facilities would likely include an educational component where Broward high school students in health science programs could get training. He said there may also be retail spaces available for lease to local businesses as well as community and green space.
Broward Health has a hospital about five miles south in Coral Springs.
He said the hospital district’s acquisition of the 7-acre site was part of the hospital’s growth plan. The hospital could build on that site even if it doesn’t acquire the school district land.
“I think each piece of property is developable,” he said. “But when you look at the overall highest and best use of the property and the community benefit to the property, [the school district property] allows us to have a conversation of how we can maximize both properties. We think it’s a win for the community and the residents of Parkland.”
The proposal has some interest from some School Board members, who are looking for ways to help the district overcome a looming budget crisis. Other board members are more cautious, saying the district needs to ensure that it won’t have a use for the land in the future. The school district has not identified the land as surplus.
School Board Chairwoman Lori Alhadeff, who lives in Parkland and represents the affected area, said the district shouldn’t rush into disposing of the property. It may want it for a school in the future or to house a district program, she said. She also questioned why fellow School Board members were eager to build a new medical complex in Parkland.
“I’m sitting back in shock hearing that Parkland is in need of a medical center,” she said. “I live in Parkland. That conversation has never come up. You have Cleveland Clinic right now down the street. You have hospitals on U.S. 441 and in Coral Springs.”
She said the School Board should wait until Superintendent Peter Licata develops his plan to redefine the district. After the district closes and repurposes schools, there may be the opportunity to build schools in areas where there is a need, such as Parkland, she said.
Alhadeff added there may be other property the district would rather sell. And if the district decides to sell the property, it should be competitively bid, she said.
The school district also owns another undeveloped tract of land on the northeast corner of Nob Hill Road and Hillsboro Boulevard in Parkland.
Some Parkland city officials have also warned about moving too fast.
The School Board agreed Wednesday to hold off making any decision until at least June, while also directing Licata to develop a long-term plan for its facilities and land.
Source: SunSentinel
Thirty years after moving beyond its Midwest base and founding a Florida outpost, Cleveland Clinic has taken a giant leap here this year with a round of acquisitions and expansions that will take it from 155 beds in Weston to 1,058 beds across five Southeast Florida hospitals and a geographic range eclipsing that of its Ohio home.
In October, Cleveland Clinic Florida inked deals to absorb the non-profit Martin Health, a system with three hospitals in Martin and St. Lucie counties, and the non-profit Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach in Indian River County.
“Our footprint in Southeast Florida is geographically going to be much bigger than our present footprint in northeast Ohio,” says Cleveland Clinic Florida CEO Dr. Wael Barsoum. Indian River lies 128 miles to the north of its base in Weston in Broward County. In Ohio, Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, plus 11 regional hospitals and 18 fullservice family health centers, all lie in a seven-county region within a 30-mile radius of Cleveland.
The two Treasure Coast hospital deals were Cleveland Clinic’s biggest by far, but the year also has seen it expand in Palm Beach and Broward. It opened a medical office in Wellington in March. In north Broward, in July it opened a 73,000-sq.-ft. family health center. In Weston, its Florida base for 17 years, Cleveland Clinic opened a tower and an expanded emergency department that total 221,000 square feet. In Fort Lauderdale, it opened a concierge medical practice this year and imported as its lead doctor a Cleveland Clinic Ohio internist who had been the personal doctor for doctors there, including Barsoum.
Hospital and health system mergers and acquisitions last year totaled a record 115 nationally, according to Illinois consulting firm Kaufman Hill. Driven by Obama-era health law changes and by a desire for negotiating power with insurers in the face of rising costs and decreasing reimbursements, hospitals have gone after scale. Stand-alone hospitals in particular have faced a squeeze.
Barsoum says Cleveland Clinic has cut $1 billion in costs in the last five years from its $8-billion system. “To stay at the top of the hill, you have to be thinking about what’s coming and to an extent be our own disruptor,” he says.
Investment rating service Moody’s says that while Cleveland Clinic is an international brand with strong cash flow and “exceptional fundraising capabilities,” revenue growth is constrained in northeast Ohio. In part, that’s what’s driving the geographic expansion in Florida and also the opening of a 200-bed hospital in London. (Cleveland Clinic also has sites in Toronto, Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas.)
At Martin Health, Cleveland Clinic has promised to invest $500 million over five years. The two already had teamed up on heart and vascular care. A Cleveland Clinic Florida cardiothoracic surgeon joined Martin Health to perform heart and lung surgeries at Martin Medical Center. At Indian River, Cleveland Clinic promised to invest $250 million over 10 years. Indian River board Chair Dr. Wayne Hockmeyer has said Cleveland Clinic’s reputation will be a “powerful recruiting tool” for top-quality doctors.
In its report, Moody’s mentioned more “potential acquisitions” in Florida. Barsoum says the organization is open to the idea. “We recognize health-care organizations, to be successful, need some level of scale,” he says. “We are regularly approached by health systems and hospitals, and we are open to talking with them. If there is a community or hospital that wants us and they are like-minded and a clinical fit, then we look forward to exploring those options.”
Cleveland’s Expanding Reach
Indian River Medical Center and Martin Health have recently joined Cleveland Clinic Florida.
Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston
Beds: 205
Employees: 3,067
Revenue: $500 million
Staff size: 259 physicians; 2,808 others
Campus: Main campus in Weston with locations in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Parkland and Palm Beach County
Indian River Medical Center, Vero Beach
Beds: 332
Employees: More than 2,000
Revenue: $290 million
Patients: 15,300 admissions
Physicians: 320
Campus: IRMC includes the Welsh Heart Center and Scully Endoscopy Center within the facility; separate buildings on the campus: Scully-Welsh Cancer Center, Health and Wellness Center, Wound Care Center
Martin Health
Beds: 521
Employees: 4,500
Revenue: $559.6 million
Patients: 34,418 admissions, 117,112 emergency department visits
Staff size: 504 physicians on medical staff, 150 employed physicians
Campus: Three hospitals (two in Stuart, one in Port St. Lucie)