Nearly $500M hospital breaks ground in Fort Myers

Lee Health Fort Myers will replace Lee Memorial Hospital in the coming years.


The Lee Health Fort Myers campus will include more than 400,000 square feet of hospital space and a medical office building spanning over 125,000 square feet.
The Lee Health Fort Myers campus will include more than 400,000 square feet of hospital space and a medical office building spanning over 125,000 square feet.
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Lee Health celebrated the ceremonial groundbreaking this week for its newest hospital project, Lee Health Fort Myers. Located on 53 acres, the hospital will be at the intersection of Colonial and Challenger boulevards.

“This campus represents our commitment to meeting the growing needs of Southwest Florida and ensuring our residents and visitors have access to world-class medical care for generations to come,” President and CEO of Lee Health Dr. Larry Antonucci says in a statement.

Lee Health Fort Myers will be about five miles southeast of Lee Memorial Hospital, which it is planned to replace. That hospital, founded in 1916, will remain operational until Lee Health Fort Myers is complete. Officials anticipate the new hospital will open in 2028. It will cost $481 million to build, according to a spokesperson for Lee Health.

Lee Health Fort Myers will contain an acute care hospital with up to 168 private patient rooms in a facility spanning more than 416,000 square feet. It will include a 44-bed emergency department, 24 ICU beds and 10 inpatient operating rooms. Modern patient rooms will be equipped with "smart" technology, and the hospital's departments will utilize state-of-the-art equipment. 

The new campus will also be home to the Lee Health Musculoskeletal Institute, offering care for orthopedic and musculoskeletal health in a 125,000-square-foot medical office building that also contains eight operating rooms.

Lee Health Fort Myers is being built with hurricane-resistant construction as well as a full-facility generator, and it will have the capacity for growth, according to a statement.  

The Jan. 27 "groundbreaking is more than just the start of construction,” Antonucci says in a statement. “It’s a celebration of the Fort Myers community and the future of health care that Lee Health is committed to bringing.”


 

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Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a business news reporter with the Business Observer, covering primarily Sarasota-Bradenton, in addition to other parts of the region. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she previously covered hyperlocal news in Maryland for Patch for 12 years. Now she lives in Sarasota County.

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