PALM BEACH, FL—Martin Health System just broke ground on its new hospital at the Tradition Center for Innovation (TCI), a 150-acre research park in Port St. Lucie. The 90-bed Tradition Medical Center will serve as a resource for research studies taking place at TCI.

“The Martin Health System began the process for approval of a hospital in Port St. Lucie over 14 years ago,” Andrew Favata, vice president of Mann Research, developer of TCI, tells GlobeSt.com. “The need was anticipated then. As the community has grown so has the need for a MHS hospital. In addition, as the Tradition Center for Innovation has grown to include over 200,000 square feet of biotech space. MHS saw the need to expand its clinical trials with each institute.”

Tradition Medical Center’s plans include a dedicated phase one unit for conducting inpatient clinical trials. As TCI works to bridge the translational gap through collaboration among its current research institutions, the Tradition Medical Center could play an integral role in bringing drug and device development from the bench to the clinic.

“A hospital that conducts clinical trials is a huge benefit to the existing not for profit research institutes for many reasons,” Favata says. “First, the hospital can provide access to patients in a collaborative setting. Secondly, physicians and researchers can work together, literally, in a laboratory or doctors setting, depending on what stage the trial is in. And finally, the speed at which MHS can review, approve and begin trials greatly enhances the ability for the institutes to accelerate their discoveries.”

Having direct access to the hospital's nationally recognized clinical research program and internal institutional review board allows TCI's anchor institutes to work with patient samples even in the early stages of clinical development. Martin Health's approval process outpaces some of the nation's most well known academic institutions where it can take months to initiate a trial. At Martin Health, programs are approved within two weeks in some cases.

Construction on Mann Research Center's 60,000 square foot medical office campus that will accompany the new medical center will begin in August 2012. Phase two of construction will produce approximately 80,000 square feet of additional space. The anticipated completion date for the 20-acre medical center is set for early 2014 and is expected to create 400 jobs initially and another 400 jobs over the long term.

What’s next for TCI? “We always have several interested parties reviewing relocation and expansion opportunities at the Tradition Center for Innovation,” Favata says. “All I can tell you now is expect 60,000 square feet of medical office space to be under construction this year and more medical and life science space to be developed.”