Baptist Medical Center Clay Plans 80,000-Square-Foot Medical Office Building

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. - Baptist Medical Center Clay is planning an approximately 80,000-square-foot medical office building and an additional parking project at its Clay County hospital campus, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The Clay County Development Review Committee is scheduled to discuss the applications today, Thursday, Nov. 5, following the submission of a commercial development plan application on Oct. 26. The proposed additions would expand a medical campus anchored by a $234 million hospital that opened in December 2022, the newspaper reported, although Baptist has not said how the new facilities would be used.

Clay County reviews the expansion applications Nov. 5

The Jacksonville Daily Record reported Oct. 30 that the Clay County Development Review Committee was scheduled to discuss the proposed medical office building and parking project on Thursday, Nov. 5. The applications concern development at Baptist Medical Center Clay, located at 1771 Baptist Clay Drive. The projects remain under review, and the Daily Record report did not identify a final county approval.

The commercial development plan application was submitted Oct. 26, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. England-Thims & Miller Inc. is identified as the civil engineer for the proposed work. The application covers an approximately 80,000-square-foot medical office building, while a separate parking addition is also part of the planned development.

The parking project's size was not specified in the Daily Record report. A construction start date and an anticipated completion date were not available for the proposed additions. Thursday's scheduled committee discussion concerns the applications rather than a reported final authorization to begin construction.

Proposed medical office building would add 80,000 square feet

The planned medical office building would contain approximately 80,000 square feet, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The Daily Record reported that the existing Baptist Medical Center Clay hospital has about 300,000 square feet. The proposed medical office building's floor area would equal approximately 27% of the existing hospital's floor area, based on the two reported measurements.

The comparison puts the proposed building's size into perspective without establishing what medical services it might accommodate. The existing hospital occupies six stories, while the number of stories planned for the new medical office building has not been reported. Baptist has also not announced the departments, practices or specific services that would occupy the proposed addition.

The additional parking project is identified alongside the medical office building in the development plans, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. However, the report does not specify the number of parking spaces or the size of the parking improvements. The two projects are being considered as part of the proposed development activity on the Baptist Medical Center Clay campus.

Baptist has not announced how the additions would be used

Baptist has not specified how the proposed medical office building and parking additions would be used, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The health system indicated that more details about the plans would be provided soon. Its statement also emphasized a commitment to growing alongside Clay County's population.

That statement establishes the general context Baptist provided for the proposed expansion, but it does not identify particular medical programs or services. The Daily Record's report does not name prospective tenants for the new building. The reported proposal therefore establishes the building's approximate size and the existence of an additional parking project without detailing their eventual operations.

The Jacksonville Daily Record's Oct. 30 article is the source of the development application information. A review of Baptist's online newsroom on Nov. 1 found no announcement about this medical office building project. The only Clay County item listed there was a Sept. 30 item about a schools youth resiliency initiative.

Existing hospital opened in December 2022

Baptist Medical Center Clay began accepting patients Dec. 19, 2022, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The hospital represented a $234 million investment and contains approximately 300,000 square feet across six stories. Its opening means the proposed medical office expansion is being considered nearly four years after the hospital began serving patients.

Construction of the existing hospital began in November 2020, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported. The construction effort involved more than 1 million work hours before the hospital opened in December 2022. Haskell served as the contractor, and HuntonBrady Architects designed the hospital.

The hospital contains 102 private rooms, including maternity suites and a neonatal intensive care unit, according to the Daily Record. Those facilities are part of the existing hospital rather than services specifically identified for the proposed office building. The new application concerns additional medical office space and parking at the campus where those hospital facilities already operate.

The existing hospital's size also provides a basis for comparing the development plans. At approximately 80,000 square feet, the proposed office building would have about 26.7% as much floor area as the 300,000-square-foot hospital. That calculation compares the two buildings individually and does not represent a confirmed percentage increase in the total campus's developed floor area.

Cancer center opened nearby in April 2023

Baptist's development in the Clay County area has also included a Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. That facility opened in April 2023 on a nearby 45-acre campus. The Daily Record identified it as the fourth Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Jacksonville area.

The cancer center's opening followed the December 2022 launch of Baptist Medical Center Clay. The two facilities are part of the development history described in the Daily Record's reporting about Baptist's presence in Clay County. However, the report does not establish that the proposed 80,000-square-foot office building will contain cancer treatment facilities or operate as an extension of the nearby cancer center.

The distinction matters because Baptist has not provided a specific use for the newly proposed building. The established hospital and nearby cancer center illustrate the existing medical facilities discussed in the Daily Record's coverage. They do not, by themselves, identify the services that would be offered in the proposed office building.

Baptist Health operates across Northeast Florida

Baptist Health Northeast Florida operates six hospitals, excluding Wolfson Children's Hospital, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The health system also operates 10 emergency centers and more than 200 outpatient points of care. These figures describe Baptist's broader regional operations rather than a count of facilities proposed for this development.

The proposed medical office building would be located at Baptist Medical Center Clay, one of the health system's existing hospital campuses. The Daily Record's report identifies the development proposal but does not say whether the building would house existing operations, additional services or a combination of uses. Baptist's statement about growing with Clay County's population is the explanation provided in the report.

The size of Baptist's existing network provides organizational context for the development application. However, the regional hospital, emergency center and outpatient figures do not establish how many new facilities would result from this project. The only building size identified for the proposal is approximately 80,000 square feet, in addition to the separately described parking project.

What remains under review

The Clay County Development Review Committee is scheduled to discuss the applications Thursday, Nov. 5, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The proposal follows the Oct. 26 commercial development plan submission and includes England-Thims & Miller Inc. as the civil engineer. No final approval was reported in the source information available for the scheduled review.

The proposed building's future uses, construction schedule and completion date were not available. The size of the parking project also was not specified in the Daily Record report. Baptist has indicated that further information about the additions will be provided, but the report did not establish when those details would be released.

The existing Baptist Medical Center Clay hospital remains the reference point for the proposed development at 1771 Baptist Clay Drive. According to the Jacksonville Daily Record, the hospital opened Dec. 19, 2022, and the nearby Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center followed in April 2023. The new applications now place an approximately 80,000-square-foot medical office building and additional parking project before Clay County's development review process.