Flagler Health+ broke ground Thursday, June 10, on its new health-and-wellness campus, located in the Durbin Park development.
The 42.5-acre campus will feature a state-of-the-art hospital and outpatient surgery center and will incorporate the signature Flagler Health+ Village concept.
Targeted services are expected to open in early 2023. Completion of the three-phase project is expected to take six years.
The health village will offer family medicine, specialty care, urgent care, imaging, laboratory services, healthy lifestyle programming and community engagement space with an emphasis on integrating nature and technology to enhance experiences, according to the health system.
Flagler Health+ Durbin Park will also include a wellness facility, walking trails and retail offerings.
“We are creating a premier health and wellness destination,” said Flagler Health+ President and CEO Jason Barrett. “The campus has been designed to create a sense of community, deliver uniquely personalized experiences and achieve the best possible health outcomes for all people. We are proud of our 130-year legacy of service to St. Johns County and look forward to further advancing physical, social and economic health for area residents.”
Northern St. Johns County continues to see an explosion of growth as homeowners move to the area from out-of-state. With the addition of Walmart and other big box stores, the Durbin Park community has begun to anticipate that influx of population.
Barrett indicated that the Flagler Health+ project is related to that expected growth. In fact, the hospital system is collaborating with Gate Lands to bring workforce housing to the community. This is especially important as it will meet the needs of hospital employees who feel they must reside outside of the county due to the high cost of housing here.
Flagler Health+ bought the property located between Interstate 95 and State Road 9B from Gate Lands, the real estate subsidiary of Gate Petroleum Co., in 2019.
The new campus is expected to add about 1,300 jobs to the area when completed. Barrett estimated that over a five-year period, those jobs will result in about $1 billion worth of economic activity for Northeast Florida.
The new campus joins similar endeavors in Nocatee, World Golf Village and St. Augustine.
“When I first became involved with Flagler Health+ more than a decade ago, it was the organization’s commitment to quality and to community that made a tremendous impression on me,” said Todd Neville, chair of the Flagler Health+ Board of Trustees. “From consistently being named one of America’s 100 best hospitals to serving as our area’s lead agency to eliminate homelessness, Flagler Health+ brings something very special to our region. I feel extremely fortunate to serve as chairman of the board as we embark on this exciting new venture here in Durbin Park.”
