Johns Hopkins makes big land buy in Pasco for children's hospital
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 11, 2024

Health care giant Johns Hopkins has made a big land buy in Pasco County, with plans to build a children’s hospital on the property.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital paid $21 million for 114 acres at the northeast corner of the Interstate 75 and Overpass Road interchange, the Tampa Bay Business Journal has learned.

The hospital confirmed its land acquisition to the Business Journal on Thursday and said construction is slated to begin on the first phase by the fall. The hospital will be operational in 2028. It did not disclose how many beds the new facility will have and said it is “actively engaging with the community and area pediatricians to develop a plan for what types of services are the best fit for the site.”

The St. Petersburg children's hospital became part of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Health System in 2011. It was the first hospital outside of the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro area to join the organization.

“As a top pediatric health system in the Southeast, we continuously look for opportunities to make our services more accessible in order to provide high quality care for children across our region, including considering options for clinical locations,” Justin Olsen, COO at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, said in a statement. “In the nearly 100 years since our hospital was founded, we continue to grow with our community. A key part of becoming the leading pediatric clinical and academic health system in the Southeastern U.S. is taking care of children throughout the Tampa Bay region.”

The institution’s plans for a new 365,000-square-foot hospital were approved by Pasco County commissioners as part of a larger rezoning request in mid-November. The same rezoning approval also makes way for the following development, between the land Johns Hopkins purchased and a neighboring 50-plus acres:

1,275 multifamily units

155,000 square feet of retail

150,000 square feet of office

250,000 square feet of medical office

250 hotel rooms

Bill Eshenbaugh of Eshenbaugh Land Co. represented the seller, Wildcat Groves Inc., in the transaction.

The Hopkins-anchored project is another economic development win for Pasco County, which is largely a bedroom community for Tampa commuters. It is also the second major life sciences development on tap in Pasco: Moffitt Cancer Center’s Speros campus, an anchor of the master-planned Angeline community, will sprawl more than 4.6 million square feet at completion. Speros will offer both patient care and research facilities.

The land purchase comes as Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital is dealing with the aftermath of a $260 million judgment a jury awarded the family of Maya Kowalski, who was a patient at the St. Petersburg hospital in 2016. The Kowalski family was awarded the judgment after alleging the hospital falsely imprisoned Maya, who suffered from complex regional pain syndrome. Hospital workers suspected Maya was a victim of child abuse and separated the girl from her family. Her mother, Beata Kowalski, died by suicide during the separation.

In mid-December, the hospital asked for a new trial alleging juror misconduct. A judge denied the hospital’s motion in early January.

The Kowalski trial was the second public relations crisis Johns Hopkins All Children’s faced in less than five years. In 2018, a Tampa Bay Times investigation found that surgeons and other providers at the hospital’s heart institute had made serious errors, resulting in patient deaths and permanent injuries.

All Children's Hospital joined Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Health System in 2011.