Florida Hospital Mimics Success of its Sister Facility

TAMPA, Fla. — Administrators, business leaders and government officials met in mid October to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for St. Joseph’s Hospital—South. The moment marked the beginning of a journey that will end in 2015 with the completion of the 325,000-square-foot hospital on a 72-acre campus. The site will also house a separate 40,000-square-foot physician office building, scheduled to open earlier in 2013, with medical imaging and laboratory services, specialty physician offices and primary care services. Another 80,000-square-foot medical office building will be connected to the main hospital.

The project will be designed by Gresham Smith and Partners with Barton Malow Co. serving as the general contractor. The same team worked on St. Joseph’s Hospital—North, a similar project that was completed two years ago.

At the event, Representative Kathy Castor, whose district covers the majority of Tampa, expressed her belief that the project would greatly aid the local economy. “Think about it: $225 million invested here and the ripple effect that will have. First, construction jobs boosting small business throughout the community. Then, the medical professionals that will move here and their families that will grow up here. This hospital is going to be an anchor for economic development for the South Shore community and all of southern Hillsborough County.”

The hospital staff will consist of approximately 500 people. The construction of St. Joseph’s Hospital—North, led to a boost to the local economy as banks, professional services providers, and retail developments quickly sprung up to serve the employees and patients. Hospital president and CEO Isaac Mallah explained that his staff worked on the project for more than seven years before a single shovelful of dirt was moved, getting everything approved through local, state and federal governments. The project’s history extends even further, as hospital leaders purchased this plot of land in the mid 1980s.

This project will mostly mimic the process involved in creating its sister facility to the north, but the team is also using some of the feedback from that project to improve on the model. Paula McGuiness, chief operating officer at St. Joe’s North, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal the design team was eliminating some privacy shades included in that project from the South version, as patients didn’t use them as much as expected. She added that some lighting and plumbing fixtures would be altered as well to enhance productivity.