Florida Hospital is spending a total $398 million on a 15-story Cardiovascular Institute and $143 million for new towers at its east Orlando and Altamonte Springs campuses. Nemours Foundation is budgeting $390 million for a children's clinic and hospital. Orlando Regional Medical Center is investing $125 million on renovations at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and $100 million to build Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies.

Area marketers and hospital industry consultants tell GlobeSt.com the most contentious projects will be those planned by Nemours. The hospital has to convince state authorities a new $300-million, 28-acre hospital is needed in the metro Orlando area before it can obtain a development permit. The hospital site is near the 1.3-million-sf Mall at Millenia in south Orlando.

"Orlando Regional [Medical Center] is expected to vigorously oppose Nemours plans on grounds the two hospitals would be duplicating services for area patients," sources familiar with the development plans of both hospitals tell Globest.com. Nemours representatives, however, maintain their new facilities will offer services and medical expertise not available at either ORMC or Florida Hospital. The Nemours hospital project would create 1,500 new jobs, foundation officials say. ORMC sources say their projects will open up 1,000 new permanent positions.

Still, Nemours' planned $90-million children's clinic on Vineland Road, near the planned hospital site, will not require state approval and is expected to break ground later this year, according to foundation representatives. Nemours also has childrens' clinics in Orlando, Pensacola and Jacksonville, its national headquarters.

The clinic is the first phase on Nemours' development table in Orlando and is expected to cost $15 million annually to operate. But since Nemours is the sole beneficiary of a $4-billion trust fund from Alfred I. DuPont, it will require no additional outside funds for its projects, sources tell GlobeSt.com. The second-phase hospital project is expected to cost about $40 million annually to operate.

Instant Insights /

Three Area Hospitals Plan Nearly $1B in New Development

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