SMH to lease 54K-square-foot building, bring cancer services to Venice

Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System has leased an entire 54,000-square-foot outpatient medical building planned adjacent to SMH’s Venice hospital campus, where it plans to offer endoscopy and specialty outpatient services and house an extension of SMH's Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute.

North Carolina-based healthcare real estate firm Flagship Healthcare Properties, which owns the property at 2695 Curry Lane, says preliminary site work has begun in Venice. An LLC tied to Flagship purchased the 5-acre site for $4.2 million in January, according to Sarasota County property records. Pending permitting and plan approvals, the firm is projecting the medical building will be complete by 2028. 

Previously, Flagship planned to build the three-story facility as a multi-tenant location, with SMH signing a lease to occupy at least one floor with outpatient endoscopy services and SMH First Physicians Group’s gastroenterologists.

Leasing the whole building will enable SMH to bring cancer services from its Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, which launched in 2020 at its Sarasota campus, to Venice. 

“Cancer treatment can require frequent appointments with multiple specialists and care teams, sometimes over many months,” Vice President of the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute Kelli Dancer says in a statement. “Expanding these services in Venice will make it easier for patients in south Sarasota County and surrounding communities to access comprehensive, coordinated cancer care closer to where they live.”

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SMH has proposed housing a radiation oncology center and medical, surgical and radiation oncology physician clinics on the first floor of the building, with access to infusion services, diagnostic imaging and integrative and supportive care.

When the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute began, SMH says 50% of local cancer patients left the community to seek advanced treatment elsewhere, a number that has since fallen to 30%, according to a statement. In the past six years, the institute has provided thousands of local patients with access to cancer specialists, advanced treatments and technology, clinical research and support services.

“Every patient who can receive high-quality cancer care here rather than traveling hours away is able to spend more time focused on healing and less time traveling for appointments and treatments,” Dancer says in a statement. “The Venice center is an important step in our commitment to build a comprehensive cancer program that meets the needs of our growing region.”

While cancer services will be offered on the first floor of the building in Venice, the endoscopy center and SMH First Physicians Group’s team of gastroenterologists will be located on the second floor. The third story will be shelled for future growth, according to a statement.

The 54,000-square-foot lease marks the largest transaction in property owner Flagship’s history.

Flagship manages nearly 9 million square feet of healthcare real estate across more than 440 properties serving more than 810 tenants.

Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System is a community-owned healthcare system that handles 2 million patient visits a year across its network, which includes two full-service hospitals in Sarasota and Venice, with a third being built in North Port; freestanding ERs in North Port and Lakewood Ranch; a rehabilitation hospital; skilled nursing facility; and outpatient centers, urgent care clinics and First Physician Group primary and specialty care practices. SMH also plans to acquire 120 acres in Manatee County for future expansion. The healthcare system reported operating revenue of $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2025.