PRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM C. MCLAUGHLIN
A look into the progress of the main entrance of the hospital, on the west side of the building.
Since the property was purchased by the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in 2016, NSU and HCA have been collaborating on constructing a new hospital. This semester, HCA has been working on this new project with Brasfield & Gorrie construction and now are about 50% complete with the project.
This new hospital will serve as a replacement for Plantation General Hospital as they will be closing after the completion of the Davie location. This property sits on the northside of what is referred to by facilities management as academic village at the corner of South University Dr. and Southwest 36th St. Expected to be completed by December 2020, this site will house a four-story 308,000 sq. ft main hospital building, an executive medical office building (MOB) and a seven-story parking garage.
According to Josh Rodriguez, assistant supervisor on the HCA project from Brasfield & Gorrie construction, the project is just shy of 50% completion with the majority of the buildings to be “topped out,” or the last structural pieces of the building set in place, by the end of this week.
“We will reach a milestone this week and top out the main hospital building. The central energy plant has already been completed and topped out since July,” said Rodriguez
This central energy plant is a separate building that holds all of the main mechanical, electrical and plumbing components for the facility and runs all the wiring and piping underground to each building. This makes it easier to maintain and locate issues in the system in case problems arise.
Currently, the HCA MOB doesn’t have a contract for the buildout of the offices. It will also be considered a cored shell, meaning the building will be completed to the bare minimum requirements to pass inspection until a contract for the interior is signed. In the near future, the existing medical clinic on this property will be tied into the HCA facilities.
“The existing E.R. will be tied in eventually. We haven’t started working on how that will work exactly, we are just [continuing construction alongside the existing E.R] right now. It is still open and operational,” said Rodriguez.
HCA and Brasfield & Gorrie are a new relationship to the NSU community. This new collaboration has opened the door to opportunities to work with these companies and collaborate between NSU and HCA.
“We’ve got a great relationship with them [through this project]. They’ve been very cooperative. The road work they have done, they have been working through the night sometimes [to prevent closing the access roads to the university], for instance. It’s been going very well,” said Randy Seneff, executive director of design and construction for NSU.
Taking into account the university’s focus of medical research and post-graduate degree programs in the medical field, NSU hopes to work with HCA professionally with their students.
“I do believe there will be collaboration between HCA and the Health Professions Division. I can’t speak to [the collaboration,] but [having this facility nearby] is beneficial for NSU students. There is potential for it benefitting students with a possible HCA, HPD and the Center for Collaborative Research with some kind of link there as well,” Seneff continues. “Just in general, it will promote the development of the north half of Academic Village. This is the catalyst for the Academic Village. Now the hospital is being completed, there really shouldn’t be anything that should stop us from finishing from developing this area [of the university].”
