Hospital Corners Still Adding New Buildings

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The economy might be in the doldrums, with new construction numbers in the pits, but there is one bright spot at the northern edge of the Haines City city limits where growth is still apparent.

Call it “Hospital Corners.”

Tucked along the intersection of U.S. 27 where Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center holds sway are some new streets, several acres of skinned ground where a new medical complex is about to be built and where a Polk Community College campus is expected to go up, a recently opened strip mall in full swing, and one drug store about to open while another one is being planned.

“If the school goes in there, that’s going to drive an awful lot of development just like the hospital has,” said Steve Shealey, who chairs the Economic Development Committee for the Haines City-Northeast Polk County Chamber of Commerce.

PCC has its eye on several acres on U.S. 27 near Massee Road for a long-promised campus for the area.

As Allison DeVito, deputy director of the Haines City Economic Development Commission, pointed out, the chances the project will go through look good.

“If we can get some construction grants for PCC, it’s a go,” she said.

But while getting that new campus built is still somewhat up in the air, construction of the CIVIX complex, a $250 million to $300 million project on 24.25 acres of land immediately south of the hospital, already has begun with site preparation nearly finished and vertical construction about to get under way.

“You should start seeing the first building go up in two to four months,” Adam Connelly, project manager for the construction, said at the end of February.

The plans call for four buildings, four stories each, that will focus on medical-related businesses including office space for doctors with ties to Heart of Florida and an assisted-living facility.

The first two buildings are expected to be completed within 24 months of the start of construction, with the others to be built as they are needed, Connelly said.

As he spoke, a Walgreens at U.S. 27 and Massee Road was having the finishing touches put on its construction.

Add to all that the shopping plaza and Publix store that opened last year directly across the highway on the east side of U.S. 27, and the plans for a CVS Pharmacy on the northeast corner, the intersection provides a sense of progress and growth that many other parts of Polk are not seeing at the moment.

“I think that area will become a focal point for Northeast Polk and beyond,” De Vito said.

“It’ll bring emphasis to the area that nobody else in Polk has, with high-end, high-quality buildings for businesses to look at,” he said.
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