During their Monday, Sept. 16 meeting, Lakeland City Commissioners approved zoning changes that will allow AdventHealth to construct a large-scale medical complex on roughly 218 acres of land near the Polk Parkway and Harden Boulevard.

While the development is in early engineering and design stages, proposed plans for the site include:

A 400-bed hospital with a maximum size of 720,000 sqft and height of 10 stories
Up to 200,000 sqft of medical offices
204,000 sqft of retail commercial space
A 250-unit apartment complex

And that's not all. The complex also plans to include a free-standing ER, rehab center, parking structures, and a helipad for medical transport.

This mock-up of the proposed AdventHealth hospital and medical offices shows that it would take up nearly 22 acres of the 218 acres of land owned by Drummond Company, Inc. | Image via City of Lakeland

The land that AdventHealth plans to build on is owned by developer Drummond Company, Inc., which had previously requested to use the land to build a mix of hotels and a restaurant back in 2018. Now that City Commissioners have approved the zoning change for the hospital, medical offices, and apartments, that plan is eliminated.

With these approvals in hand, AdventHealth's Director of Real Estate shared with The Ledger that the provider will begin engineering work on the free-standing ER portion of the project first — it hopes to have it operational within the next three years.

In the meantime, the city is hoping to conduct further traffic analysis and complete additional roadwork in the surrounding area of Harden Boulevard and Old Road 37 to mitigate traffic congestion concerns raised by Lakelanders who live in the area.

Pro tip: Skip to 31:30 in the City Commission meeting to watch the full discussion of the proposal.