Baptist Health Properties Inc. is continuing its investment in the San Marco East Plaza business park, which it bought Dec. 15 for $38 million.
The city issued a permit May 18 for Auld & White Constructors LLC of Jacksonville to work on interior demolition and alterations at a two-story building at the park at 3563 Philips Highway, west of Interstate 95.
The permit is for 54,000 square feet of space at a project cost of $400,000. Plans show it as Phase 1 for the Baptist Health Central Services Center.
Kasper architecture + associates Inc. of Jacksonville is the architect.
Prescott Group of Dallas sold the property through PSF I JAX Metro LLC. The campus was built in 1961 as a retail mall but now houses tenants that include The Edge Rock Gym and Excel Church.
Upon the sale, Baptist Health said in a email that the property’s “central location and accessibility from our many locations throughout the region make it a versatile space for many purposes. Baptist Health has leased in this space for nearly 20 years, demonstrating its value to our operations.”
“Current use of the space includes professional development/training space, business offices and THE PLAYERS Center for Child Health at Wolfson Children’s,” the statement read.
Jacksonville-based Baptist Health Properties Inc. did not disclose its plans for the property.
The plaza is on 29.68 acres, including the parking lot and associated vacant land zoned for commercial use. The Duval County Property Appraiser lists seven buildings with a combined interior space of 375,752 square feet.
Baptist at San Marco East Plaza
Among its functions at San Marco East Plaza, Baptist Health operates the 42,066-square-foot center Baptist Center for Professional Excellence, which offers classes in a simulation lab, fully equipped hospital rooms and training mannequins that exhibit medical conditions.
Baptist provided a tour of the facility Jan. 16. The Jacksonville-based health provider said the training facility, which serves Baptist’s 15,000 employees, comprises an advanced training lab and a separate classroom program.
The 13,000-square-foot lab opened in July 2025 and the classroom space opened in October.
In the simulation lab, Baptist Health re-created a hospital setting with features such as replicated operating rooms, intensive care units, patient rooms, equipment rooms and more. The lab is five times the size of the one it replaced.
Baptist Health said that depending on the training, sessions can last 10 to 16 weeks and accommodate up to 200 students. Trainees work in replicated rooms and are expected to solve problems when dealing with mannequins showing signs of distress.
Baptist Health said the training facility could quickly be converted to a fully functioning urgent care unit during a hurricane or another catastrophic event.
The Baptist Health facility occupies a portion of the buildings at the San Marco East Plaza. No plans were announced for the unoccupied buildings.
“We’ll look at what the best and highest use is,” former CEO Michael Mayo said before the Jan. 16 tour. “Some of the specifics we’re looking at is a centralized logistics center for our supply chain, where we may centralize warehousing and then shipping to all of our facilities.
“We’re also evaluating a potential core laboratory operations where we can centralize lab work that’s automated. We’re actually going to look at a potential commissary, or a centralized food distribution location.”
Retail roots at San Marco East Plaza
The Community First Igloo ice rink is adjacent to San Marco East Plaza. Prescott Group sold the rink building in 2022 for $6 million to the owner of the Jacksonville Icemen hockey team.
San Marco East Plaza was originally known as Philips Highway Plaza.
When it opened, tenants included Montgomery Ward, S.H. Kress Co., F.W. Woolworth Co., the Plaza Theater, Liggett Drugs, Zales Jewelry, Vogue, Kinney Shoes and Thom McAn Shoes.
In the late 1970s, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, now Florida State College at Jacksonville, maintained administrative offices and some academic space at the property. FSCJ began transferring its operations to its Downtown campus in 2010.
In 2019, The Prescott Group acquired the property from Moteli Properties of Montreal in a foreclosure sale for $5,800 and assumed $57.9 million in debt.