Lee County hospital sells for $32M to Nashville health care group

Naples, Fort Myers and Charlotte

The sale of the Lehigh Regional Medical Center in Lee County has been completed and plans are underway for a new freestanding emergency center to be built on Alico Road. HCA Florida Healthcare announced Thursday the deal had closed, saying it had bought the hospital at 1500 Lee Blvd. in Lehigh Acres and was renaming it HCA Florida Lehigh Hospital. County records show the hospital building sold to Nashville-based HCA Healthcare for $31.6 million. The medical center is a 53-bed hospital founded in 1965. California-based Prime Healthcare had owned it since 2006, when it paid $6 million for the building. When the sale was initiated last year, Prime notified state and local officials that 294 employees had been laid off but offered the opportunity to join HCA. An HCA spokesperson says 300 employees made the transition. In addition to the sale, HCA Florida, part of HCA Healthcare, says it is building a freestanding emergency room on Alico Road near Three Oaks Parkway. It will be named HCA Florida Alico Emergency and is expected to open next year. With the purchase and the new emergency room, a spokesperson says HCA will have $134.5 million invested in Lee. That includes two other existing freestanding emergency rooms — HCA Florida Cape Coral Emergency and HCA Florida West Fort Myers Emergency. 

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