BayCare Health System broke ground Wednesday on a hospital in north Manatee County, part of a $563 million health care campus that will anchor a 288-acre residential-commercial development.
BayCare Manatee will be built on Moccasin Wallow Road at Interstate 75, a mile north of the interchange with I-275, in Parrish on what is known as the Robinson Gateway.
The 154-bed hospital will go next to a 45,000-square-foot medical building, home to BayCare Medical Group providers offering primary and specialty services. Slated to open in 2026, the outpatient “HealthHub” will also include laboratory and imaging services.
When it opens in 2028, BayCare Manatee will be the only hospital in the county north of Manatee River.
“Our groundbreaking is just a symbol of what’s coming to Manatee County,” said BayCare president and CEO Stephanie Conners, who added BayCare Manatee will be the first nonprofit hospital in county.
Clearwater-based BayCare operates 16 hospitals in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties.
Patrick Downs, president of St. Joseph’s Hospital South, said BayCare Manatee will be “a comprehensive acute care facility” offering general surgery, orthopedics, specialty surgery, neurology, gastroenterology and cardiology. Officials said obstetrics will be a focus.
“Right now, over 50 percent of women leave Manatee to deliver their babies,” Connors said in comments recorded by BayCare for the media. “We hope that with all our efforts … no mom ever has to leave their community, and babies can be born in the community which they live.”
The Robinson Gateway is a major development that will include housing, retail and a hotel. The property is near areas of recent population growth that has attracted an influx of health care projects, including many standalone emergency departments.
