Baptist Health announced Monday it will begin construction this spring on a $187 million, seven-story Wolfson Children’s Critical Care Tower.
The tower will become the front entrance to Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville at 800 Prudential Drive on the Downtown Southbank.
The 220,000-square-foot structure is scheduled for completion in 2021.
“In May, you should start seeing activity at the site,” said Keith Tickell, vice president of strategic assets/real estate for Baptist Health.
“This new building will be our new ‘front door,’ essentially reorienting our entire campus,” said Michael Mayo, Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville Hospital president, in a news release. “We intend to create an extraordinary patient and family experience for all who enter.”
The new tower will include a 75-bed neonatal intensive care center and a 26-bed pediatric intensive care unit. The neonatal intensive care center will comprise three separate units, replacing the 56-bed Level II and Level III Newborn ICUs at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
“Wolfson Children’s Hospital is receiving more and more critically ill infants and children from cities well outside of Jacksonville,” Wolfson Children’s Hospital President Michael Aubin said in the release. “It is our responsibility to ensure that our young patients are met with world-class care in the most advanced facilities.”
The added beds will bring the hospital’s total to 272, making Wolfson Children’s Hospital the second-largest children’s hospital in Florida.
The tower also will integrate with Baptist Jacksonville’s high-risk obstetrics and neonatal delivery center.
It will include private patient/family NICU suites with space to sleep two parents, full showers and bathrooms and separate parent wardrobes.
“The new Wolfson Children’s Critical Care Tower will be an incredibly beautiful facility, inside and out,” Aubin said.
“The new Wolfson Children’s Critical Care Tower will impact families for decades to come,” he said. “We are grateful to our donors, whose generous support of our mission makes it possible for us to provide the highest level of care for our most vulnerable patients.”
The new tower will be linked to the medical center’s parking garage by a skybridge over Palm Avenue.
The project architect is FreemanWhite, part of The Haskell Co.
The contractors are a partnership of DPR Construction of West Palm Beach and Jacksonville-based Perry-McCall Construction.
The team also built the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center, which opened last year.
Wolfson Children’s Hospital is a part of Baptist Health. Wolfson Children’s pediatric institutional partners comprise Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville; the University of Florida College of Medicine—Jacksonville; and Mayo Clinic Florida.
