The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday cleared the way for a 100-bed, 155,000-square-foot, four-story AdventHealth hospital on 11 acres along Palm Coast Parkway, on land equidistant from Pine Lakes Parkway to the west and Belle Terre Parkway to the east. The council was required to approve a zoning change to allow for certain exceptions.
Wally de Aquino, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said he’s projecting an initial 400 to 450 jobs at the hospital initially, and up to 700 to 750 jobs when the medical office building is completed.
The hospital will be built in phase one of the project. A two-story, 30,000 square-foot medical office building will be built in phase 2. The area is brimming with new development, with a Wendy’s about to open, a Sherwin Williams paint store and an O’Reilly’s store that opened relatively recently, and a Goodwill store that recently submitted a site plan application to the city.
The area was zoned general commercial in a Palm Coast overlay district that sets a 50-foot building height limit. The hospital will be just under 80 feet, which was among the reasons requiring regulatory changes. The hospital’s impact on the economy was cited as a rationale justifying the council departures from existing city regulations, though the council’s unanimous vote approving the project was never in doubt. The city’s planning board previously recommended approval in a 7-0 vote.
The hospital will be similar to its campus along State Road 100, with an emergency department, a chapel, a gift shop, dining facilities, an outpatient surgery center (including radiology, oncology, diabetes, pain management, surgery and/or rehabilitation center), a family pediatric clinic, a wellness center, home health care services provided to AdventHealth patients, and a therapy center, among other services. The facility will also have a helipad.
“The hospital would be located 300 feet from the nearest residential home to the north, and about 500 feet from the nearest residential home to the south,” City Planner Bill Hoover said. AdventHealth will grant the city $7,000 to its Tree Bank Fund.
“I would just like to thank AdventHealth for continuing to be a tremendous community partner,” Council member Nick Klufas said when the regulatory item was first presented to the council two weeks ago. (Land-use decisions require two readings.) “Everything that the city and I’ve experienced through my tenure on the council, Adventhealth has always been a tremendous partner through the thick and thin, and I’m appreciative that you’ve decided to invest in our community, and that you’re going to be able to bring this level of jobs and also that carry with it that level of salary that is critical for the trajectory and future growth of Palm Coast.”
No one from the public addressed the item on Tuesday, though two weeks ago a resident asked a perennial question about hospitals in the county: will it have a maternity ward? But Advent executives have said for many years that the county and the city don;t yet have the population base that would warrant a maternity ward, while the city’s population continues to grow especially among people 65 and over–a demographic that justifies an additional hospital, but not a maternity ward. Milissa Holland, the mayor at the time, reiterated the demographic explanation. “That does not mean that that would not be something that in future they would provide,” she said, but for now, “The data does not support that.”
Holland added: “AdventHealth is not just making an investment in this community for greater access to health care. This is an over $100 million investment. They’re making an investment in people.” Addressing de Aquino, Holland added: “I really want to take a moment and thank you for the tremendous job that you also provided during Covid-19, are still currently providing. Your health care workers work day and night, so we always want to say thank you and appreciate them, because it was an extraordinary moment, and to watch what they had to go through and endure was incredible.” Holland noted AdventHealth’s continuing partnerships with the school system’s flagship programs and with the two universities setting up satellite campuses in Town Center–the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University.On Tuesday, Council member Eddie Branquinho made the motion to approve the rezoning, remembering his late son. “It’s very special to me and I’ll make that in my son’s name if I’m allowed. Please make that motion to approve,” he said. There were no objections, and the motion passed unanimously.
Percy's mother says
750 “high wage jobs” is rather a generalization.
Take it from someone in healthcare, and who regularly talks to other healthcare providers in all specialties, AND someone who had to take a FIFTY PERCENT TO SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT PAY CUT 10 years ago . . .
Hospitals and healthcare providers are barely hanging on financially. Loads and loads of physicians, young and old, are leaving the profession because healthcare has been and is being strangled with government regulations and there’s very little reimbursement. Medicare (CMS) aka The Government runs healthcare now. Everyone is beholden to Uncle Sam. Should one make a vital mistake in documentation, coding, etc, a simple mistake in CMS “guidelines” can cost a fine BEGINNING at $10,000.00 +. Its usually much more.
Just about everything in any hospital around here has been outsourced, and that goes for Halifax, AdventHealth and what’s now called Flagler-Plus (or whatever the new name is) in St. Augustine.
Who in healthcare has any “high wage” job? It’s not doctors, and its not hospital employees. Nurses are being worked to death. Healthcare facilities are more than short-staffed and wages have gone DOWN, DOWN DOWN (except for CEOs and those in the high hierarchy of healthcare facilities). And by the way, the equipment isn’t maintained properly (saving money on maintenance agreements), such that when a doctor is in the middle of a surgery, the vital piece of equipment just may not work which means the surgery can’t be completed. I could give stories that would shock you.
All you people talking about “high paying” hospital / healthcare jobs are living in a dreamworld.
There are doctors in this town who are barely keeping their doors open (the ones who’ve decided to try to hold out as long as possible from becoming just another peon employee working for a hospital). The doctors who had no choice other than to become a hospital employee are treated like dirt, just like all the other peon workers in the hospitals. Can you imagine going through absolute hell to get a medical degree, graduate with $200,000.00 PLUS student loan debt just to be treated like a low level employee AND have no say whatsoever in patient care?
People need to stop listening to the likes of Joe Mullins talking about “high paying” healthcare jobs. Joe Mullins is living in the past. He doesn’t have a clue what’s going on in healthcare. If he did, he wouldn’t be gloating about 750 “high paying” healthcare jobs coming.
Get it? There are no high paying healthcare jobs any longer. AdventHealth isn’t going to tell you how many jobs (departments) its outsourced in the last 5 years. Flagler+ in St. Augustine isn’t going to make it known that they’ve laid off a majority of their staff in the last 3-4 years. Now they’re in a bind because they can’t get anyone to work for them and/or stay working for them due to poor working conditions, poor treatment and LOW WAGES.
Ever wondered why Advent Health is having trouble finding employees? Because the pay is so incredibly low.
I could go on, but I’m sick and tired of hearing about high paying healthcare jobs from people who don’t have a clue what’s happened to healthcare in the last 10 years.
Robjr says
Wally de Aquino, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said he’s projecting an initial 400 to 450 jobs at the hospital initially, and up to 700 to 750 jobs when the medical office building is completed.
So everyone is going to be paid high wages? lol
Gina Weiss says
Percy’s mother: AMEN! I couldn’t have said it better as a fellow RN working for over 20 plus years in hospitals, SNF’s and homecare. These are clueless people glamorizing healthcare jobs who think we are making MUCHO DINERO as we bust our backs, if you added it up it came to less than hourly minimum wage because as a homecare RN we continued to work at home way into the evening hours which you do not get paid following a more than full day of work, no one takes a lunch break, to complete our notes on a computer which was a challenge in itself because they kept on changing the computer programs , adding more and more paper work basically to protect the administration from lawsuits or because the hospital or SNF got so many deficiencies from the state due to all of those obstacles they faced that you mentioned above. And when the state walked in those prima donnas, for the biannual review what a joke the same ones who scrutinized nurses, CNA’S who are REALLY underpaid , and other healthcare workers ,also clueless of how hard people work. Going into this field is a calling . If you go into this field for the money think twice.
Dennis says
Welcome to Florida where high paying jobs are very far and few. My wife as a nurse, made $23 an hour 8 years ago in Pa, Now she has worked her way up to $19 an hour after 8 years. Good thing taxes, electricity and housing were cheap when we moved her.
TR says
and don’t forget we have no income tax. You property taxes are also a lot lower here.
Mary Fusco says
Like beauty, “high wage” jobs is in the eye of the beholder. LOL. My daughter has been an RN for 25 years. She is currently a Home Health Nurse Case Manager out of Baptist in JAX. The nurses are worked into the ground and for the most part work 7 days a week. They can’t keep nurses which makes the remaining nurses’ caseload unbearable. Joe Mullins doesn’t know what he is talking about. Any hospital, business, corporation, etc. will only pay the “going wage” for the area. PC will never have high paying jobs. When my daughter moved from NY to FL, she took a huge pay cut. Her reason for moving to JAX was that she was burnt out. She now laments that she is still burnt out for less pay. LOL.
Morgan Monaco says
High paying jobs in PC only a joke!…Look @ everyday in this town, people hating each other, road accident & drug are welcome, road rage & violence even @ city hall thank’s to republicans. Mayor quitting with good excuse (she should have done that a year ago) There is no talent in Palm Coast, only no brain & savages coming from all over & it’s not getting any better. Lord !.. It was so nice 13 years ago…I throw the towel too…
Jane Gentile-Youd says
The last time I was in the ER ( Flagler) the bathroom floor was filthy ; so were the doors and walls. Thank GOD their staff is good. They just took 11 acres of property tax income away from Palm Coast as well as the county. They hide behind their tax exemption which should be eliminated once and for all. No trauma center, no cardiac surgery facility, no obstetrics but they have a overly hyper billing department.
I currently have an appeal pending with Medicare over the copay they want for sticking me with needles and waking me up every 10 minutes but never doing the minor surgery I needed..
They even had the nerve to send me a bill just last week that I lose my appeal and owed them my co-pay. When I called the ‘lady’ who signed the letter I got a voice mail message from a ‘man’ who said he was in charge of that department . I left a rather not so nice message reminding him, them, that my appeal is alive and well and I don’t owe them a dime for doing nothing I could not have done at home… I have a blood pressure machine ( 2), pulse meter, sugar tester and was never bedridden while in their miserable care last year.
The mattress was so hard I had back pain for the first time in my life- a nurse told me its very common to have back pain from their cheap mattresses and not to worry. Towels I would not use on my dogs. ( I saved 2 of them one has tape on it)
I am glad the hospital will have a helipad – let’s see how much they will charge anyone who needs it – . They milk their staff and Christ would roll over in his grave if he saw how ‘religious’ they are in my opinion… Whew Glad I got that off my chest for now.
Erobot says
You wanted socialized medicine and you got it. You also want more socialism and it looks like you’re gonna get. Too bad you’re taking the rest of us with you.
Steve says
Well on the positive take there is more Hospital/HealthCare if you need it and in FPC those Jobs are key and add to ones choices for Employment. Lets face it theres not many options.
tulip says
Its too bad that some other name hospital didn’t come here and build in that spot. Perhaps the competion would have improved Advent. It seems like Advent is deliberately aiming to become a monopoly here. I’ve been an in patient twice over the last 12 years and both times it was an awful experience and the hospital ought to be ashamed of itself.
Darksideofthemoon says
All that bitching and moaning accomplishes what? Ok we get it jobs aren’t high paying, beds are stiff, etc…but not one mention of a solution! Don’t build it? Promote “low wages jobs” ?
Gina We says
Darksideofthemoon: The article is about big shots boasting HIGH WAGE salaries for 750 jobs so I guess they intend to hire 750 HIGH WAGE CEO’S because the HIGH WAGE salaries will not be going to the frontline healthcare workers which should be made clear. Yes it will bring in jobs but the BS must stop. In fact one hospital system has been suing tens of thousands of patients in the midst of a pandemic making people go bankrupt while the CEO’S gave themselves millions in bonuses! 2020 was the most lucrative year in a decade for hospitals!
Eat Chicken Soup says
I agree the medical industry in America is “F-ed Up”.
I spent $10,000 in the last year out of my retirement funds to pay for USELESS and UNNECESSARY treatments at 2 of our local hospitals. Hell, 1 hospital kept me in for 1 week. Then told me I could go. I asked “WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME” ? They said, we don’t know….. One week later the bills started coming in. I mean thousands of dollars….. THEY DID NOTHING but blood work and gave me food. ……….. Unless your on “DEATHS DOORSTEP”, don’t go into the hospitals.
Stretchem says
Of course the term “high-wage” is subjective, with many variables to consider, one of which being locale. In Flagler, the median individual income is only about $27k, or approximately $13/hr. That’s not a high bar to achieve in order to declare “high-wage”. You can earn more working across the street at the O’Reilly Auto Parts store.
The COO of AdventHealth is paid around $3,000,000 a year. Now that’s “high-wage”. Each and every one of us have allowed this disparity in worker compensation to take place over the last 40 years, right around the time a rich Hollywood actor turned pretend politician said trickle-down economics will keep things fair. So the corporations shuffled monies away from the people who actually make things happen and gave it to a select few in the brotherhood of white men. YOU allowed it to happen. YOU believed in the trickle-down, not understanding that it was really trickle-on economics. YOU believed that the Lamenting Orange Fart’s corporate tax cuts three years ago would somehow or another make YOUR life better, and not the wealth of the COO at AdventHealth.
So on it goes. Townships such as Palm Coast give out the corporate welfare. The city manager gets a nice phat compensation package that’s EIGHT TIMES the average citizen’s income, and somehow, someway, YOU think that these greedy rat bastard “conservatives” will someday give you a slice of that pie. The only thing being “conserved” is YOUR ability to obtain THEIR wealth. You’re being trickled-on and you’re good with it.
Gina says
I work in the healthcare industry and I’d like to have one of those HIGH WAGE CEO jobs and can do a much better job for half their salaries. How do these jackasses even get these jobs? I see them once in a blue moon getting on the elevator in the hospital in their crisp navy blue custom made suits with their crisp white shirts and silk ties and once awhile exiting the hospital going off to play golf. They all should be wearing mask because they are robbing us taxpayers. In other words it’s CRIMINAL that these people should be making such astronomical salaries while others are killing themselves caring for people making pennies. These hardworking healthcare workers are not only entitled to make better salaries but at this point it is crucial to maintain a viable working force in this field. Get rid of the HIGH WAGE for these DO NOTHING CEO’S , cut their salaries so that people can earn a decent living. You can call Palm Coast a Township call it anything you want I really don’t care sounds like another cliche or catch word rich fat cats gave it to rob.
JustBeNice says
With all of the homes being built I feel that there should be a maternity ward and pediatric ward in the new hospital. Women have to travel to Daytona to give birth and if a child has to be hospitalized, parents have to travel to Daytona. I think it’s short-sighted to not include these facilities in the new hospital.
Also, if minimum wage is increased to $15 and nurses earn $18-19 an hour, are there wages going to be increased? I surely hope so. They are way more important than burger-flippers.