BayCare moves forward with $326 million Plant City hospital relocation
A rendering of South Florida Baptist Hospital Enlarge A rendering of South Florida Baptist Hospital

By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 4, 2021

BayCare Health System Inc. is moving forward with plans to relocate a Plant City hospital — a project slated to cost $326 million.

BayCare first revealed plans to build a new South Florida Baptist Hospital off Exit 22 of Interstate 4, east of the intersection of E. Sam Allen Road and N. Park Road, in August 2020. In late June, the health system paid $8.25 million for more than 50 acres, according to Hillsborough County property records.

A groundbreaking ceremony had been slated for later this month, a health system spokeswoman said, but has been postponed due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Orlando-based Barton Malow is the general contractor, and the projected construction timeline is 28 months. South Florida Baptist Hospital will move to the new 150-bed facility when construction wraps up.

The current South Florida Baptist Hospital was built in 1953 and has undergone 12 major additions and renovations. The new site is four miles from the current hospital.

“After 67 years, we have run out of room to expand the hospital on its present site,” hospital president Karen Kerr said in an August 2020 statement. “Also, retrofitting the hospital’s infrastructure to meet the growing technological advances in health care solutions is often an expensive and challenging option. Because of that, we feel that to better meet the growing needs of our community, we need to relocate and build a new hospital.”