After some uncertainty following a City Council decision not to allow a free-standing emergency room on the site, it now seems the MedSquare medical office building project in Port St. Lucie is moving forward.
The roughly 68,000-square-foot project at 190 SW Becker Road is “currently underway,” according to an April 27 news release, with an anticipated completion date in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Cleveland Clinic has signed on to be the anchor tenant of MedSquare, occupying the entire first floor, an area of 34,000 square feet.
The Class A medical office building is being built by development firms MAS AJP and Flagler Healthcare.
“Port St. Lucie has emerged as one of the fastest-growing communities in the country, adding tens of thousands of new residents in recent years,” Alberto J. Pérez, managing partner of MAS AJP, said in the news release. “That growth is creating a clear need for modern, well-located health care facilities, and MedSquare will meet that demand while supporting leading providers like Cleveland Clinic.”
The Port St. Lucie location of MedSquare — a brand that also has locations in Miami, Cutler Bay, Pembroke Pines, South Miami, Sarasota and Charlottesville, Virginia — was selected because of its proximity to Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike, Flagler Healthcare CEO Chris Coots said in the news release.
However, the location also contributed to issues that put the entire project at risk. The property is located in a primarily residential area, and is just 1 ½ miles from Florida Coast Medical Center, a hospital owned by one of Cleveland Clinic’s competitors, Tenet Healthcare. Florida Coast opened in September with a 26-bed emergency room and 54 traditional inpatient beds.
In December, the City Council voted 4-1 not to allow Cleveland Clinic to use part of the property as a freestanding emergency room that would have taken up about one-quarter of the facility. The councilmembers who opposed that proposal primarily cited the location.
Mayor Shannon Martin, who is a board member of Florida Coast Medical Center, said her opposition was due to a freestanding emergency room not being a good fit for the area, and not due to protecting the existing nearby hospital.
“This is not, for me, about Cleveland Clinic. This isn’t about Florida Coast Medical Center. This entire conversation is about the use, under our planning and zoning code,” Martin said.
Other councilmembers, with the exception of Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo, agreed. Most said medical office space, which the City Council had already approved for the site, was a better fit for the community’s need.
However, at the December meeting, Chirag Choudhary, vice president and chief medical officer of Cleveland Clinic Tradition Hospital, told the City Council that without the freestanding emergency room, the rest of the project might not get built at all.
“I am not going to commit whether we are going to be able to follow through with the rest of the plan if a portion of the plan is not approved,” Choudhary said.
Now, though, it seems plans are moving forward for the entire facility to be utilized for medical office space.
Wicker Perlis is TCPalm’s Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at Wicker.Perlis@TCPalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Cleveland Clinic medical office project moves forward in Florida city
Reporting by Wicker Perlis, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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