Local stakeholders are eager to see how the area’s newest medical project will impact the region.

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare discussed its plans for the new FSU Health campus at Wednesday morning’s economic development alliance meeting.

“I tell people every day, over the next five to ten years, you’re not going to recognize this area. It’s not just Bay County, it’s really throughout the Panhandle area. A lot of it has to do with companies like Tallahassee Health looking in our community,” Bay County EDA President/CEO Becca Hardin said.

On Wednesday, Bay Economic Development Alliance investors got a progress report on the new FSU health medical office building and future hospital.

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare partnered with FSU and the St. Joe company in 2021, realizing the venture would be a wise investment.

“We saw the growth of this area, we saw the need. We go back to our mission, our values, and for where we wanted to grow and for what we wanted to do while maintaining that mission and those values, we wanted to have a landscape that made sense. Really, when you look at Bay County and really the surrounding areas it made a lot of sense,” TMH Chief Health Operations Officer Andrew Starr said.

The 80,000-square-foot medical office building opened in July. Patients are already using primary and urgent care services.

The new 180-bed hospital will be more than 300,000 square feet and will create hundreds of jobs.

“Between the medical office building and the hospital, we will clearly have 500 net new jobs. We’re still working through the design, but it could be as much as a thousand,” Starr said.

“If you’re looking at a thousand new jobs coming into the area, you have to look at the economic impact of those jobs. People will be buying homes, people will be buying cars, kids will be in school, there’s more money in the bank. It’s just a tremendous economic ripple effect when you see that volume of new jobs coming to your community,” Hardin said.

Officials should break ground on the hospital in January and open in 2027.

Source:  My Panhandle