Developers Unveil $250M Plan for Old Hospital Site

The plan calls for an estimated $250-million redevelopment to be built on the former 10.5-acre site of Waterman Hospital, a local landmark for 65 years that was demolished in 2003 because it could no longer grow or expand on the existing site.

A six-story, 204-bed, 500,000-sf, $129-million hospital replaced the 182-bed, 350,000-sf complex in August 2003. The new site on US 441 in Tavares is nine miles from the Downtown Eustis location and 30 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

The redevelopment plan calls for 254,000 sf of retail, 155,000 sf of office, 109,200 sf of non-office civic space, 670 condos, apartments and townhomes, and 1,600 off-street parking spaces. Controlling the project is the nonprofit Lake Eustis Foundation created by Waterman Hospital, which donated the land for the redevelopment.

The Foundation plans to lease out parcels on the site for at least 50 years or the life of the development. By leasing, rather than selling the land, the Foundation anticipates generating annual revenue of about $48,000 to $72,000 and possibly up to $125,000, local brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.

The hospital would use some of the lease revenue to fund its $25-million-a-year indigent care caseload and to establish the Lake Eustis Institute, an educational center that would provide academic, cultural and recreational classes for area residents.

Although the prime development is centered on the 10.5-acre site, the master plan takes in a broad 40-acre Downtown perimeter where new side street realignments would connect easier to Downtown arteries. Prices of available vacant and developable lots in the redevelopment corridor are expected to rise as the project nears its final approval stages, area industrial brokers tell GlobeSt.com.