By HFT Staff

As Sarasota Memorial Health Care System begins clearing land for North Port’s first full-service hospital, SMH leaders are already planning the future expansion of the south county campus. 

At a groundbreaking ceremony, officials unveiled plans for the $507 million hospital campus on a 32-acre site the health system owns in the 4800 block of North Sumter Boulevard. It will be the city’s first acute-care hospital, and the third hospital SMH has built in its 100-year history. 

When completed in 2028, Sarasota Memorial Hospital-North Port will be nine stories tall, with an adjacent three-story medical office building. The hospital will initially open with 100 beds but will include three floors of finished shell space, which will allow SMH to quickly double capacity to 208 beds. The campus design is flexible with capacity to increase to more than 400 beds in the future. 

Building a hospital in North Port has been part of Sarasota Memorial’s growth plan for many years. In January, the health system’s governing board approved $507 million to build and equip the hospital. That includes three floors of shell space that can be used to quickly double the hospital capacity if the need arises. 

The campus will offer a comprehensive range of emergency, medical, surgical and specialty care, a full complement of diagnostic services, as well as onsite outpatient services and physician practices. The first floor of the hospital will include emergency, radiology/imaging, administrative and support services, as well as a cafeteria and coffee bar; the second floor will house surgical and procedural areas; and floors four through six will be dedicated patient care units with private rooms for admitted patients. The third floor is reserved for mechanical space. Floors 7-9 will be built as open shells and finished in a future phase.