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LAKE NONA GETS NOD FOR NEW CENTRAL FLORIDA V
A FACILITY -- Will be part of a "medical city"
in upscale community.
Planned U. of Central Florida Med. School
in Lake Nona --
VA will be next door.
Story here...
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/
custom/growth/orl-va0207mar02,0,4466913.
story?coll=orl-news-growth-headlines
Story below:
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VA chief selects Lake Nona
The price for the new veterans hospital near
Burnham and UCF rises to $560 million.
Mark K. Matthews and David Damron | Sentinel Staff Writers
WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has picked Lake
Nona as the new home of a half-billion-dollar medical complex, local
congressmen announced late Thursday.
The decision ends a monthslong competition between Lake Nona and a
nearby corporate park for the $560 million facility.
Click here to find out more!
"I don't think there could be better news for the veterans of Central
Florida," U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said. Martinez said the new
hospital would round out an "incredible" series of medical centers
planned for the Lake Nona area.
Many of Central Florida's veterans generally favored the International
Corporate Park site along the Beach- Line Expressway in east Orange
County.
But politicians have been enticed by the potential synergy of Lake Nona
developer Joe Lewis' vision of a "medical city" within its expanding
upscale south Orlando community.
Doctors with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs eventually could
work near researchers from the recently approved Burnham Institute for
Medical Research and the University of Central Florida medical school.
"Our hope is to attract the best and brightest physicians and
researchers. And that can only benefit our veterans," said U.S. Rep. Ric
Keller, R-Orlando.
Nicholson toured Orange County's two prospective sites for a new
hospital last month and didn't tip his hand on a preference, but he did
unveil a price tag for the project that's 39 percent higher than
initially expected.
He said the escalated cost should not deter or delay congressional
budgeters, who will be asked to approve $535 million in funding during
the next two budget years. The money will build a full-service hospital,
an outpatient clinic and other health facilities.
The project's climb from about $403 million last year to $560 million
resulted from price spikes in concrete and other building materials and
easily outpaces a previous cost estimate authorized in December by
Congress.
With the site-selection process out of the way -- Congress already had
weighed in for Lake Nona -- the decadeslong fight for a medical center
now moves to a new phase: securing funding.
But Central Florida lawmakers were confident they would persuade
Congress to write a check for the new hospital, given the years of
delays already endured by Orlando-area veterans.
"We've been waiting 25 years for this hospital," said U.S. Rep. Corrine
Brown, D-Jacksonville, who sits on the House Committee on Veterans'
Affairs.
"You can rest assured this project will move forward."
Mark K. Matthews can be reached at
mmatthews@orlandosentinel.comor 202-824-8222. David Damron can
be reached at
ddamron@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5311.
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Larry Scott --
