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Orlando is getting healthier, both physically and economically. Much of the credit goes to what is called “Medical City,” a 600-acre park where half a dozen medical facilities are under construction in the Lake Nona development outside of Orlando.
A new $655-million Veteran’s Affairs hospital is being built, so is a 95-bed children’s specialty hospital by the nonprofit Nemours Foundation. The University of Central Florida is building a medical school and the nonprofit Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute opened a 178,000 square-foot research facility a year ago.
Even with massive construction cranes scattered around the park, vast amounts of acreage waits for future ground-breaking ceremonies and development signs to promote more things to come. The city has a “bio Orlando” pitch.
Five years ago, none of it existed and the land was barren, much like the landscape in eastern Collier County where the Economic Development Council and local government leaders hope to build Collier’s version of a bio-medical park.
