Medical campus gets nod

The complex would surround Brooksville Regional Hospital.

By DAN DEWITT
Published July 10, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - The land surrounding Brooksville Regional Hospital will be part of a medical campus with rehabilitation and assisted living facilities, outpatient treatment centers and medical offices.

It might not happen soon, but a vote by the county Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday makes it all possible, said Stephen Mitchell, a Tampa lawyer representing Hernando HMA Inc., which owns the hospital.

"This is the first step," Mitchell said.

Though the county owns the 26-acre hospital site, the company owns the 114 acres around it.

Together, the 140 acres would become a medical campus under the plan presented to the commission.

The commission recommended changing the comprehensive plan on the property, which extends west from the hospital to Lykes-Dublin Road and south to Wiscon Road, to create a planned development district that will allow HMA to build the campus.

In addition to the existing 68,000-square-foot office building next to the hospital, HMA plans to build a 36-bed assisted living facility.

Other elements may include a center for patients to receive dialysis treatment and rehabilitation therapy, Mitchell said after the commission vote. According to plans the company sent the county, all the new structures would cover 291,000 square feet -- an area 100,000 square feet larger than the Wal-Mart Supercenter planned for Barclay Avenue.

Mitchell said the plans are in the early stages and he does not know when the first parts of it will be completed.

"It's not going to happen tomorrow," he said.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified July 9, 2007, 20:55:07]