Building on $1 billion in recent investment, Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic still expanding

Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic is expanding its Southside campus, having added 210 acres on its northwest side to be developed for potential medical and related residential and hotel uses.

Mayo spokesman Kevin Punsky said he did not yet have a dollar-value on the expansion. But it comes on top of the at least $1 billion in projects the hospital has undertaken over the last few years at its San Pablo Road campus.

Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the top hospital in Florida and among the best in the nation and by Newsweek as one of the best in the world, Mayo will "strategically grow" its now 602-acre campus over the short-term and the next century, Punsky said.

The planned development will enlarge the campus from its current 2.8 million square feet, not including parking structures, to 7.5 million square feet. Long-term, Mayo envisions a 12.5-million square foot campus, in 90 years or so, he said.

"Mayo Clinic plans to further expand and enable our vision of a truly unique health care ecosystem that leverages the most advanced spaces and technologies to support our clinical practice, education, research and innovation activities for the remainder of this century," he said.

Currently the 304-bed facility has 22 operating rooms, transplant and epilepsy units, an emergency department and advanced cardiac and neurosurgery facilities. Teams of specialists provide services in more than 40 medical and surgical specialties, as well as medical education and research.

"In the years to come, our plan will deliver best-in-class facilities, immersive and experimental learning environments and innovation technology hubs that drive strategic collaborations dedicated to advancing scientific discoveries," Punsky said.

That growth will also benefit the community, by "spurring significant economic development and creating thousands of new jobs in the medical sector," he said.

Initial governmental permitting process underway

Mayo's vision for the so-called North Campus, which lies along William Davis Parkway, is in its early stages, with an initial buildout by 2045 and growing room beyond.

"The plan is still being developed and specific uses have not yet been determined," Punsky said. "The property provides room to grow for the next 100 years."

Mayo received preliminary approval for its development plans from the Jacksonville City Council earlier this year. Necessary rezoning requests will come to the council "some time in 2025," Punsky said.

"We are still working on the development plan for the parcel and won’t have a specific rezoning request until that is complete," he said. "Currently we are focused on drainage and environmental permitting for the entire site."

Other permit applications are pending, such as a master drainage plan recently submitted to the St. Johns River Water Management District.

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Anthony Robbins, senior planner/project manager at Prosser Inc., represented Mayo when the City Council's Land Use and Zoning Committee considered the preliminary plan in February. The additional property necessitated amendments to the development of regional impact, or DRI, plan approved for the campus in 1988.

The expansion is a continuation of "what Mayo has done for 35 years," Robbins said, by developing its campus "to put Jacksonville on the map as one of the premier locations for world-class facilities," research and technology.

Another benefit of the plan is that it "removes the threat" of intensive development that would bring an additional 10,000 cars a day to the area, Robbins said. The land-use maps that governed the property under its previous owner permitted that kind of development.

He said the necessary rezoning requests would be submitted when Mayo had "finalized where things are going to go" within the 210-acre property.

"We will be back," Robbins said. "It is a lot."

The Land Use and Zoning Committee approved the DRI amendments on Feb. 22, followed by the full council on Feb. 28.

37 years in Jacksonville

Mayo Jacksonville was built in 1986, the first subsidiary campus of the main Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The Davis family, founders of the Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie grocery chain, spearheaded a fundraising campaign to bring Mayo to town and donated about 400 acres for the original campus.

The new property also came from the Davis family, but Punsky declined to disclose the terms of the 2022 transaction. The 2023 market value of the vacant land is $24 million; the purchase price was $100, according to the Duval County Property Appraiser's Office.

The North Campus is the latest example of Mayo's growth in Jacksonville in the last several years. Projects underway include a $432 million five-floor addition above the existing Mayo tower, a $233 integrated million oncology unit and an $8 million emergency services expansion.

Also being built on campus is a $46 million, 252-room Hilton Hotel to join the existing Courtyard by Marriott and two hospitality houses.

Projects that opened in recent years include the $70 million four-floor addition to Mayo Building South in 2019; a $38 million, 866-space parking garage, including 5,000 square feet of space for retail and other uses, in 2020; and the $32 million Discovery and Innovation Building, featuring a Life Sciences Incubator connecting entrepreneurs with resources to bring medical solutions to market, in 2019.

bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic expanding on recent $1 billion investment