Lake Nona - Medical City

[scottb411]

A thread to discuss the new medical city getting built in Lake Nona.

Projects to discuss:

- UCF Medical School

-- Burnett Biomedical Building

-- UCF School of Nursing

- Burnham Institute

- University of Florida Research Facility

- M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Institute

- Veterans Hospital

- Nemours Children Hospital

- Florida Hospital

- Lake Nona Town Center

Lake Nona website:

http://www.learnlakenona.com/

UCF College of Medicine Website:

http://med.ucf.edu/

Nemours unveiled their site plans today:

http://static.nemours.org/www-filebox/orlh...-plan-final.pdf

June 2008 Construction Update:

http://www.fp.ucf.edu/images/LakeNonaNews/...0Newsletter.pdf

Edited June 30, 2008 by scottb411

[JRS1]

^^

I was not aware of the MD Anderson bldg. The FH bldg. was also news to me a couple of weeks back.

what's the Burnett Biomed bldg? is it an independent entity or affiliated with a college?

--this is pretty exciting.

[scottb411]

what's the Burnett Biomed bldg? is it an independent entity or affiliated with a college?

The Burnett Biomedical building is a part of the UCF College of Medicine that will be setup for research purposes. It is the furthest along in terms of construction:

http://med.ucf.edu/news/2007/july/072607/index.asp

[RestedTraveler]

The Medical City is coming along nicely. It looks great from the air! Has there been any news on the Lake Nona Town Center portion of the Lake Nona plan? I would imagine that's been put on hold for a bit?

Edited January 1, 2009 by RestedTraveler

[demon]

The Medical City is coming along nicely. It looks great from the air! Has there been any news on the Lake Nona Town Center portion of the Lake Nona plan? I would imagine that's been put on hold for a bit?

I know the high school will be opening in the fall.

[RestedTraveler]

I know the high school will be opening in the fall.

Yes - this is true. I have been reading the updates from the principal of Lake Nona High (Dr. Anderson). Go Lions!!!

[demon]

Yes - this is true. I have been reading the updates from the principal of Lake Nona High (Dr. Anderson). Go Lions!!!

I didn't know they had a team nickname yet. Do you know the school colors?

[bulldogger]

Amazing how similar that looks to a strip mine.

[smileguy]

I know these are not new, but thought they should be here. VA Renderings from the Ellerbe Becket website.

There were some better quality, ground-level renderings shown by Tavistock at the Orange County legislative delegation meeting a couple weeks ago, but couldn't find them online. Anyone know where to get them?

[JRS1]

I know these are not new, but thought they should be here. VA Renderings from the Ellerbe Becket website.

There were some better quality, ground-level renderings shown by Tavistock at the Orange County legislative delegation meeting a couple weeks ago, but couldn't find them online. Anyone know where to get them?

this is a really cool looking structure. is there a parking deck as park of this design-- I can't tell if the half moon structure is a parking deck.

[cwetteland]

this is a really cool looking structure. is there a parking deck as park of this design-- I can't tell if the half moon structure is a parking deck.

That would be my guess. There are several roads that seem to go into it.

[tc01]

Good news, today Nemours hospital has started Construction on their 400 million dollar project which will bring 700 million dollars into central Florida economy.Nemours hospital is set to open in 2012. P.S I wish that Nemours hospital was all ready built so that some of the 700 million dollars can go toward our new Performing Art Center and renovation for our Citrus Bowl.

Edited June 19, 2009 by tc01

[sunshine]

It looks more like medical sprawl to me.

[JRS1]

^^

that's Orlando's M.O.; a bunch of suburban PUDs...

[sunshine]

This entire thing should have been build in Paramore neighbourhood. Dense development. You got the retails, workforce, and also solve the crime problem. Instead, more trees and land are cleared for another huge strip mall development out in the middle of nowhere.

[prahaboheme]

It's a shame really. So much inner city development potential. A dense medical city within the downtown development district -- this could have easily rivaled the Longwood Medical Center area of Boston (Children's Hospital of Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Mass Pharmacy, Beth Israel Hospital, all within a dense, pedestrian environment).

Orlando always has the potential and the opportunity and never quite lives up to it.

[i_cre8]

Orlando always has the potential and the opportunity and never quite lives up to it.

Amen!

[scottb411]

Amen!

I wouldn't get down on Lake Nona because it is not in downtown. Both Orlando Health and Florida Hospital have long-term plans for their expansions for their bookends in downtown and have two great buildings in Winnie Palmer and the new tower that Florida Hospital just built. Nemours wanted to build their hospital in downtown but it would have competed with Orlando Health and Florida Hospital so out it went. The location of Lake Nona adjacent to research park opens up a lot of exciting opportunities of combining medical research with simulation and laser technologies. If any of this spills into downtown, we are in good shape and there will be plenty of growth in the downtown residential market housing these professionals.

Edited June 22, 2009 by scottb411

[cwetteland]

I wouldn't get down on Lake Nona because it is not in downtown. Both Orlando Health and Florida Hospital have long-term plans for their expansions for their bookends in downtown and have two great buildings in Winnie Palmer and the new tower that Florida Hospital just built. Nemours wanted to build their hospital in downtown but it would have competed with Orlando Health and Florida Hospital so out it went. The location of Lake Nona adjacent to research park opens up a lot of exciting opportunities of combining medical research with simulation and laser technologies. If any of this spills into downtown, we are in good shape and there will be plenty of growth in the downtown residential market housing these professionals.

Nemours actually wanted to build near Millenia Mall (accross Conroy from Bible Land). The competition from Nemours is the same whether it be downtown, Millenia or Lake Nona ... very little. The only difference is now people get to drive further (read burn more gas, have new roads built, open up land for development).

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have med city where it is than no med city ... but opening up new areas for development is not a good thing (even if some spills over into downtown). I like downtown growth because I'd rather see the city grow up nrather out. So growing up only as a by-product of sprawl defeats the whole purpose. The only reason Med city is where it is to spur growth. Tavistock (who owns Lake Nona) donated the land to UCF and Burnham to spur development. "Build it and they will come."

[VistaLakes01]

This entire thing should have been build in Paramore neighbourhood. Dense development. You got the retails, workforce, and also solve the crime problem. Instead, more trees and land are cleared for another huge strip mall development out in the middle of nowhere.

Of course this would have been a much more esciting project downtown. At least Orlando tries to make the best use out of vacant land that is in the city limits. Metrowest was once vacant land in the city limits, there's Baldwin Park, Lee Vista and Millenia. The city did a damn good job to try to get momentum on residential going downtown. Every city has neighborhoods with different usage and they are not all in the CBD.Take a look at some older cities around the country and what is in the different neighborhoods. The entire city of Chicago is not "The Loop". Look at Baltimore, Boston, San Fran, DC, etc. We are just growing and there is a plan in place for the city's land usuage. We should be happy that the city is paying attention to how it develops!

[cwetteland]

Of course this would have been a much more esciting project downtown. At least Orlando tries to make the best use out of vacant land that is in the city limits. Metrowest was once vacant land in the city limits, there's Baldwin Park, Lee Vista and Millenia. The city did a damn good job to try to get momentum on residential going downtown. Every city has neighborhoods with different usage and they are not all in the CBD.Take a look at some older cities around the country and what is in the different neighborhoods. The entire city of Chicago is not "The Loop". Look at Baltimore, Boston, San Fran, DC, etc. We are just growing and there is a plan in place for the city's land usuage. We should be happy that the city is paying attention to how it develops!

I know you have a bias towards MetroWest ... but to say that was making good use of vacant land "within the city" just because the city annexed way out there in the boonies is very misleading. The city is annexing land all over the county so they can develop and get the taxes. ... there's a BIG difference between vacant land in the city and vacant land in the city limits. The city limits are wherever the city wants them to be.

I'll buy into Baldwin Park as making good use of vacant city land. The former tennant left. It's not too far from the CBD and is surrounded by infrastructure. Cannot say the same for Lee Vista, Millenia, MetroWest or Avalon.

I guess it also depends on how you define vacant land. I call an abandoned strip mall vacant land. I call an old parking lot next to an empty warehouse vacant land. I call a former Navy base vacant land. Woodlands are NOT vacant land.

Edited June 22, 2009 by cwetteland

[tc01]

Amen to that metrowester.

Edited June 22, 2009 by tc01

[jack]

This would have been great at the Centroplex.

[spenser1058]

This would have been great at the Centroplex.

Although many of us would like to have seen such a development downtown, I wonder if such a thing was even doable. In addition to the incentives Tavistock provided, the research I've done seems to indicate that not only Burnham but also Scripps (which we lost to PB County) were looking for more remote campuses. I'm not sure a downtown facility was desired by those folks, and they pretty much got what they wanted.

Jack's mention of Centroplex reminds me of how the convention center ended up where it is. A vote was held in the late '70's and Centroplex was one of the option. As I recall (I was one of the voters), the idea of all the traffic generated and a better road network at the time made the site on the Beeline near I4 the favorite (at that time, I-Drive stopped at Sand Lake Rd.) Although I'm about as big a fan of infill and urban renaissance as there is these days, I think I voted for one of the south Orange locations as well. The idea of doing anything downtown had to wait a few years for tax breaks for redev that started happening during the Reagan years (who knew?) and a cheerleader for downtown in the person of Mayor Bill, with a lot of help from some urban pioneers. To this day, many have yet to jump on the bandwagon, and it seems the Californians involved with biotech still aren't there. A different cultural perspective, perhaps.

[aent]

Exactly. Several of the organizations also said they wanted to make sure they had land to expand into as they grow, and the larger amount of land is very important. Also realize that some types of medical research done also requires a more controlled environment, making the buildings much more expensive, increasing exponentially as they get taller and such a busy environment could lead to other problems as well. (Security and disaster protocols for dangerous, hazardous work, etc) A lot has to go into the site locations for many medical organizations, and I think it actually is turning out decently well.