As Sarasota Memorial Health Care System prepares to begin clearing land for North Port’s first full-service hospital, plans are in the works for further expansion of the South County campus.

The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board approved spending $57 million to add three floors of shell space to the 100-bed hospital and one floor of shell space to an attached medical office building, bringing the total cost of the project to $507 million. 

A groundbreaking for the new North Port campus is planned for November. When completed, the hospital will be nine stories tall and the adjacent medical office building will be three stories. The hospital will be located on property Sarasota Memorial owns on North Sumter Boulevard near Interstate 75.

Adding the shell space now rather than waiting for a future date will allow SMH to double its inpatient capacity from 100 to 208 beds and increase its medical office space from 60,000 to 90,000 square feet.

“Given the rapid growth in the South County region, and the escalation of cost and impact of future construction, we felt it made sense, financially and operationally, to design the first tower so that it can be expanded quickly with less impact on patients, staff and hospital operations,” David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, said in a statement.

The North Port campus will be healthcare system's third acute-care hospital, and the City of North Port's first. It will offer a comprehensive range of emergency, medical, surgical and specialty care, diagnostic and outpatient services, and primary and specialty physician practice in its medical building. Long-range plans include a flexible campus design that can further expand to more than 400 beds. Scheduled to open in 2028, the hospital is also planning to open a new campus in nearby Wellen Park.

For updates on Sarasota Memorial's North Port campus, click here.