St. Vincent’s HealthCare will open a Health Center in the rapidly developing Gate Parkway corridor between Butler Boulevard and Interstate 295.
David Meyer, chief strategy and marketing officer, said Monday the 16,000-square-foot center should open in August 2018.
Plans show it will occupy 1.34 acres near the FBI Building.
It will be one of 10 Health Centers planned by St. Vincent’s. The first opened in Mandarin and a second will open Nov. 1 in St. Johns County.
Meyer said the Gate Parkway center, like the others, will offer services that include urgent care, primary care, a laboratory and imaging services.
Meyer said another seven locations will be developed over 30 months. He said submarkets are identified and St. Vincent’s is actively securing land.
Meyer said St. Vincent’s is buying the land in the majority of the locations, including along Gate Parkway.
In choosing a location, he said St. Vincent’s looks at population, population growth, market demand for urgent care, market demand for primary care physicians, the proximity to emergency room services and a detailed traffic study.
St. Vincent’s also has filed plans for a 15,185-square-foot center at 103rd Street and Jammes Road on the Westside.
Spokesman Kyle Sieg said previously St. Vincent’s will buy the property and plans are in the early stages.
Meyer said St. Vincent’s philosophy is that patients pay more when they patronize freestanding emergency rooms and that up to 75 percent of the customers who visit those departments could instead visit an urgent care center.
He said St. Vincent’s Health Centers are staffed with board-trained emergency physicians “and the cost is significantly less.”
“I can’t highlight enough the economics,” he said, around the St. Vincent’s urgent-care model and freestanding emergency care.
He said the center’s community room is an added feature and will offer nutritional, educational and wellness classes and other complementary services.
The design also will be different and include some characteristics of the nearby Southside Quarter residential, retail and office project by Hines,
Meyer said St. Vincent’s will be “thoughtful of” the colors of the buildings and the use of glass and awnings.
Gate Parkway north of Butler Boulevard leads to St. Johns Town Center.
South of Butler, where St. Vincent’s will build, is lined with several large projects, including the planned Town Center office buildings, Deutsche Bank campuses, the new Gateway Village Town Center and Ikea.
Sieg said previously the development cost of the 10 centers will be about $75 million.
The first St. Vincent’s Health Center opened in March at 10503 San Jose Blvd. in Mandarin. It is a 20,000-square-foot renovated and expanded former Walgreens that St. Vincent’s leases.
The second newly constructed 20,000-square-foot center will open Nov. 1 at 2001 County Road 210 west of Interstate 95 in St. Johns County.
St. Vincent’s said last year it also was looking for a North Jacksonville location.
St. Vincent’s HealthCare said a year ago the new-concept health centers are designed to provide essential services such as urgent care, primary care, imaging, lab services and specialty care in one location.
St. Vincent’s is part of Ascension, the nation’s largest nonprofit Catholic health system. It includes St. Vincent’s Medical Center Riverside, St. Vincent’s Medical Center Southside, St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County and St. Catherine Laboure Manor, among other services that include primary care and urgent care centers, labs, imaging centers and pharmacies.