What's going on with former FHCP HQ in Holly Hill? We've got answers

Clayton Park, Daytona Beach News-Journal
·4 min read

HOLLY HILL ― Two years after Florida Health Care Plans vacated its former longtime headquarters here, a construction fence has been erected around the 6.28-acre property at 1340 Ridgewood Ave.

Here's why:

The property has been sold

A construction fence can be seen surrounding the former Florida Health Care Plans headquarters at 1340 Ridgewood Ave. in Holly Hill on Nov. 30, 2023. The property was recently sold. The interior of existing three-story building on the south side will be gutted and renovated to become part of a new Devon Self Storage Center. The single-story building on the north side will be demolished to make way for a new three-story building that will also be part of the storage center.

FHCP sold the nearly full-block property on Aug. 9, 2023, for $6.4 million to an Illinois-based entity doing business as Holly Hill QOZ Self-Storage LLC, according to the Volusia County Property Appraiser's website.

QOZ stands for Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Who is the new owner?

The address given for Holly Hill QOZ Self-Storage LLC at 2901 Butterfield Road, Oak Brook, Illinois, is the corporate offices for The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies. Inland describes itself on its website as an "industry leading real estate investment manager."

Its clients include Devon Self Storage Holdings LLC, a national chain of self-storage centers whose principal address, according to its business license with Florida Division of Corporations, is in Emeryville, California.

Devon currently has a location locally at 1104 N. Nova Road in Daytona Beach.

What are their plans for the former FHCP property?

The former FHCP property currently consists of two main buildings and a large surface parking lot on the south end. The existing three-story building facing the parking lot will be renovated but its interior will be gutted and completely redone, according to Holly Hill City Planner Brian Walker.

The property's single-story office building on the north end will be demolished to make way for a new three-story building.

"There is a demo permit for it," said Walker of the former FHCP property. "One building is going to be demolished. One will be rehabbed. It's going to be a Devon Self Storage Center.

This is a screenshot from the Volusia County Property Appraiser's website showing an aerial view of the former Florida Health Care Plans headquarters/Daytona Beach General Hospital property at 1340 Ridgewood Ave. in Holly Hill. The property was sold in August 2023 to a developer that plans to gut and renovate the interior of the three-story building on the south and tear down the single-story building on the north to make way for a new three-story Devon Self Storage Center.

Construction manager: opening targeted for either late 2024 or early '25

Pat Roussey, a regional construction manager for Devon, confirmed his company's plans to convert the former FHCP property into a new Devon Self Storage center.

"We're going to build a new three-story building in place of the one-story building on the north side," he said in a phone interview. "We're keeping the existing three-story building on the south side. They'll be connected by a drive aisle. We expect (the first of two planned phases) to open in either the latter part of 2024 or early 2025."

The entire two-building complex will offer a total of 91,000 square feet of space, "just under 900 units," he said. "Everything's going to be climate-controlled. You drive into the building so you're never in the rain."

The total cost to build the new self-storage center will likely be $22 million-to-$24 million, including the money spent to acquire the property, said Roussey.

Internal demolition work in the existing three-story building is already underway, he added. The north building will likely be torn down in either late January or early February 2024.

Vertical construction of the new building, the project's second phase, will probably start in mid-summer 2024.

"It's going to be a beautiful new building," he said, adding, "The City has been fabulous to work with. They're very business-friendly."

The new Devon Self Storage Center will likely create four new jobs, he said.

Interior demolition work has begun to convert the existing three-story former headquarters for Florida Health Care Plans into a new Devon Self Storage Center at 1340 Ridgewood Ave., Holly Hill. An adjoining single-story building on the north side will be torn down to make way for a new three-story building that will be part of the storage center. FHCP vacated the property in 2021 when its headquarters moved to the corner of Mason and Dunn avenues in Daytona Beach.

The existing buildings were originally a hospital

The former FHCP headquarters was originally built in 1968 to be a medical center known as Daytona General Hospital.

An old postcard advertised for sale on eBay included a description of the hospital on the back stating that "the new Daytona Beach General Hospital (was) completed and occupied on March 1, 1968." It offered "complete diagnostic facilities," and was both a hospital and an extended-care facility "serving the Greater Daytona Beach area." It also offered "osteopathic medical" care.

The property included a courtyard with "multi-colored fountains."

FHCP vacated the property in late 2021

FHCP had its headquarters at 1340 Ridgewood Ave. for many years until late 2021 when it moved into a newly constructed two-story office building at 2450 Mason Ave. in Daytona Beach, on the corner of Mason and Dunn avenues.

David Schandel, the outgoing CEO for FHCP who is retiring at the end of December, said the decision was made to move because "we got to the point where we either had to invest significant dollars to rehabilitate a 60-year-old repurposed hospital building or find a new location.

"We'd already moved a portion of our operations to (the new building which FHCP was leasing). When the rest of the building became available, the numbers made sense (to buy the entire building)."

Dr. Stephen Keen, the soon-to-be new CEO for FHCP, said, "We're very happy it (the old headquarters property) went to someone who will continue to generate income for the City (of Holly Hill)."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: What's planned for the old FHCP HQ in Holly Hill? We've got answers.