The steel skeleton of BayCare Hospital Manatee is complete.
BayCare placed the final steel beam on its first Manatee County hospital during a topping-out ceremony Thursday, July 10, at the construction site on Moccasin Wallow Road in Palmetto, about one mile north of the I-75 and I-275 interchange. More than 300 guests attended, including BayCare executives, physicians and representatives from general contractor Robins & Morton, according to BayCare.
For Lakewood Ranch-area residents who have faced long drives for hospital-level care, the milestone signals that expanded acute services are getting closer. A 2024-2025 community health assessment conducted by The All4HealthFL Collaborative, a coalition that included BayCare, Orlando Health, Tampa General Hospital and Moffitt Cancer Center, found that Manatee County residents face long wait times, difficulty finding providers and limited convenient locations for care.
"There are lots of options in the Sarasota-Manatee market for health care," Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance President and CEO Brittany Lamont told the Observer in May. "But as far as having those specialties or those facilities a short drive away, I think it's important."
Inside the $563 Million Facility
The $563 million project will span more than 436,000 square feet and feature 154 private patient rooms, with capacity to expand to 207 beds. BayCare says the facility will be Manatee County's only nonprofit hospital and the first hospital north of the Manatee River.
Services will include emergency care, general and specialty surgery, cardiology, gastroenterology, urology, orthopedics, diagnostic and interventional imaging, obstetrics and neonatology. The hospital will also house a neonatal intensive care unit, which BayCare says will nearly double access to that level of care in Manatee County.
Downes to Lead New Hospital
BayCare named Patrick Downes president of BayCare Hospital Manatee, effective Saturday, July 5. Downes also serves as president of BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospital-South in Riverview, according to the Business Observer.
Opening Timeline: HealthHub First, Hospital in 2028
Construction crews are continuing work on interior spaces, infrastructure and clinical areas, BayCare said. The hospital is scheduled to open in 2028.
Before that, an adjacent 46,000-square-foot outpatient facility called BayCare HealthHub Manatee is scheduled to open in late 2026. It will house primary and specialty care providers, outpatient lab services and advanced imaging including MRI, CT, mammography and ultrasound.
BayCare broke ground on both facilities April 30, 2025. The health system announced plans for the Manatee County hospital in April 2024.
