New health care developments are taking place throughout Northeast Florida. More than $1 billion has been invested into local health care throughout Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties. Many have opened in the last year and others are planned throughout 2026. Here is a look at some of those projects.
HCA Florida Healthcare opened a freestanding emergency room Feb. 18 in St. Augustine.
HCA Florida HealthcareHCA opens stand-alone emergency room
HCA Florida Healthcare officially opened its second stand-alone emergency room in St. Johns County on Feb. 23 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
HCA Florida St. Augustine Emergency is at 1780 Woodlawn Road, St. Augustine near the Publix in the Shoppes of Mission Trace off Florida Road 16.
The new ER sits on two acres with 10,860 square feet of space. The property was purchased in April 2023 for $3.7 million with a construction cost of about $14.8 million.
Nashville-based Hereford Dooley Architects Inc. is the architect. Catalyst Design Group of Winter Park is the civil engineer. Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway, Arkansas, is the contractor.
It has 10 private rooms, a trauma bay, CT scan, ultrasound and X-ray. It is staffed by board-certified emergency physicians and emergency room nurses and it open 24/7.
HCA Florida Julington Creek at 42 Doctors Village Drive near Julington Creek Plantation is the other St. Johns County HCA Florida Healthcare emergency facility.
HCA emergency room opens on Merrill Road
HCA Florida Memorial Hospital’s first freestanding emergency room opened in January.
HCA Florida Healthcare Merrill Road Emergency is located at 8100 Merrill Road in Arlington. It is located west of Interstate 295, next to a RaceTrac gas station across from Merrill Station Shopping Center, anchored by a Walmart.
The 10,860-square-foot facility includes 11 private rooms and a trauma bay. Diagnostic services include CT scan, ultrasound and X-ray. It is staffed by emergency room nurses and board-certified emergency physicians.
It cost about $8.3 million to build and equip the facility. HCA paid $1.1 million for the 4 acres.
Architect Hereford Dooley of Nashville, Tennessee, designed the building. Auld & White Constructors LLC of Jacksonville was the contractor.
Construction is underway on McGehee Family Tower, the Baptist Medical Center and Wolfson Children’s Hospital emergency center expansion on the Downtown Jacksonville Southbank. Michael Mayo, president and CEO of Baptist Health, said Sept. 17 that when the project is completed in 18 to 24 months, it will be a significant upgrade.
Photo by Dan MacdonaldBaptist Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation planned
Baptist Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation, managed by Brooks Rehabilitation, is a joint venture expected to open in spring 2027.
It is at the Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville, 800 Prudential Drive.
Under terms of the venture Baptist will own the facility and Brooks Rehabilitation will oversee daily operations.
The project is still in the design stage. There are no cost estimates at this time, according to a Baptist Health spokesperson.
This will be Baptist Health’s first inpatient rehabilitation facility. The team at the new center will specialize in patients recovering from strokes, brain and spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions.
It will have all private rooms, a rehabilitation gym space, realistic home studios where patients can practice daily activities, specialized neurological equipment and technology and outdoor space to assist in recovery.
“Brooks Rehabilitation has served Northeast Florida for more than 50 years with a commitment to providing high-quality care for individuals recovering from serious illness and injury,” said Doug Baer, president and CEO of Brooks Rehabilitation, in a February release. “This collaboration with Baptist Health expands access to specialized inpatient services and strengthens our ability to support patients affected by complex neurological conditions.”
Baptist Health Hotel planned near Downtown Southbank campus
Baptist Health is planning to add a 15-story, nearly $110 million hotel to its campus on the Downtown Southbank, according to land-use and governmental affairs attorney Steve Diebenow of Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, who is representing Baptist.
The 1.82-acre site at 1051 Palm Ave. is now a parking lot. The 226-room hotel is planned at Palm Avenue and Gary Street.
Baptist Health will own the hotel and North Carolina-based Concord Hospitality Enterprises would operate it.
Concord partnered with the Whitman Peterson private equity firm of California to build the Hilton Jacksonville at Mayo Clinic, which opened in September.
Plans include a 5,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant and terrace open to the public, plus 130 parking spaces.
There will be an extended-stay element and a four-star boutique hotel, operated under dual brands.
Rooms will be offered to families of patients receiving care in the Baptist Health campus, but the hotel will be marketed to anyone wanting to stay Downtown.
Lifelike mannequins replicate many of the symptoms human patients can have as well as complications that can occur.
Baptist Health’s Baptist Center for Professional Excellence
Offering simulation labs, fully equipped hospital rooms and training mannequins that replicate medical conditions, Baptist Health’s Baptist Center for Professional Excellence is up and running at 3563 Philips Highway.
Baptist Health bought San Marco East Plaza, a former shopping center, for $38 million Dec. 15. The Jacksonville-based health provider said the training facility, which serves Baptist’s 15,000 employees, comprises an advanced training lab and a separate classroom component.
It even has a full-size ambulance with working lights, sirens and sounds that mimic a diesel engine to help team members gain familiarity with pre-hospital care challenges and improve collaboration with emergency responders.
The lab opened in July and the classroom space opened in October at a total cost of $11.5 million.
In the 13,000-square-foot simulation lab, Baptist Health recreated a hospital setting with features such as operating rooms, intensive care units, patient rooms, equipment rooms and more. The lab is five times the size of the one it replaced.
Baptist HealthPlace in Seven Pines plans spring opening
The newest Baptist HealthPlace campus is in Seven Pines and is expected to open this spring.
It will be a primary care practice, offering a range of health and wellness services. It is expected to open this spring.
It is located near Butler Boulevard, Interstate 295 and the St. Johns Town Center.
There are currently around 1.25 million people living within a 30-minute drive of the new campus. By 2030, the population in this expanding area is expected to grow by 8.5%, according to Baptist Health.
Baptist HealthPlace at Seven Pines will feature two medical office buildings. The first building will house a new Baptist Primary Care practice, with offices for family medicine and internal medicine physicians, plus offices for cardiologists with Baptist Heart Specialists.
Plans for the second medical office building is designed to adapt to medical needs as they develop over time. It may include a potential ambulatory surgery center with imaging and laboratory services.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the McGehee Family Tower included family members as well as administration personnel from Baptist Health and Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Photo by Dan MacdonaldThe McGehee Family Tower construction is underway
Construction is underway to build the four-story The McGehee Family Tower that will provide emergency care for adults and children two separate facilities at Baptist Health’s main campus at 800 Prudential Drive.
It is being built in phases and is expected to be completed in 2029.
More patients receive emergency care at Baptist Health’s main campus than at any other hospital in the Jacksonville area, according to the hospital. The 123,000-square-foot McGehee Family Tower will care for a wide range of health needs. These include chest pain, stroke, behavioral health crises, complex illnesses or injuries and pediatric trauma.
It will be on a 17-acre parcel on the Baptist campus at 800 Prudential Drive. The city approved a permit in August for the expansion at project cost of $187.38 million.
There will be 100 emergency patient rooms: 63 for adults and 37 for children, including three pediatric trauma rooms on the first floor. It will have dedicated imaging, laboratory and ancillary resources to support emergency and trauma services.
The second floor will be a new endoscopy suite, shell space for new cardiac procedure rooms plus expanded areas for pre- and post-operative heart procedures.
Plans call for a future expansion that will add 68 inpatient rooms on the third and fourth floors.
Baptist Medical Campus at Silverleaf to open soon
Baptist Health will soon open its Baptist Medical Campus at Silverleaf. It will serve western St. Johns County.
It is located at Silverleaf Parkway and St. Johns Parkway, south of County Road 210.
The 118,000-square-foot complex is built on 33.6 acres. There is room for the future construction of a 300,000-square -foot hospital.
The campus will offer 24/7 emergency care as well as primary care – family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine.
Baptist Health Properties bought the land in 2020 for $11.5 million. The medical facility, offices and maintenance building was budgeted to cost $16.8 million to build, according to permitting documents.
England-Thims & Miller of Jacksonville engineered the project and Gresham Smith is the architect. The Hudson Companies, master developer of SilverLeaf is the developer.
Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County is at 1670 St Vincents Way in Middleburg.
Ascension St. Vincent’sFamily Birth Place in Clay planned for summer completion
Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County is expanding its Family Birth Place to include a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for sick and premature infants. It is expected to be completed by the summer.
It is at 1670 St. Vincent’s Way in Middleburg. It is south Old Jennings Road and east of Florida 23 and west of Branan Field Road. It is open 24/7.
Clay County, mirroring national trends, is experiencing a rise in preterm births. In 2023, 12.0% of births in Clay County were preterm, compared to 10.7% across Florida, according to a May 2025 news release.
The expansion will add approximately 5,000 square feet and eight Level II NICU beds in private rooms.
“We are focused on ensuring every family has access to the services they need, without having to leave their community,” said Bryan Walrath, president and CEO of St. Vincent’s Clay County in the release.
Ascension St. Vincent’s new primary care office in Murabella opens
Ascension St. Vincent’s opened a new primary care office in the Murabella area of World Golf Village.
It is at 52 Tuscan Way, Suite 203, St. Augustine in the Publix shopping center at Florida 16 and International Golf Parkway. It is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
It is 3,375 square feet and has seven exam rooms. It also provides in-office lab draws.
Ascension St. Vincent’s ER planned at Kernan and Beach boulevards
Ascension St. Vincent’s broke ground in April for its freestanding emergency room at 12705 Beach Blvd. at Kernan and Beach boulevards.
It is expected to open this spring. No date has been announced.
More than 40 workers will be assigned to the 10,000-square-foot emergency room.
There will be a triage area, a critical care room, nine treatment spaces and CT and X-ray technology. It is expected that more than 16,000 patients will receive care annually at the site, according to the hospital.
Ascension St. Vincent’s Southside will operate the ER facility. When a patient needs emergency care on the main campus, St. Vincent’s can coordinate transportation and schedule follow-up appointments.