The Daily Dig
Skanska has topped out a $435 million hospital and medical office development for Lee Health in Fort Myers, Florida. The five-story building sits on Lee Health's 52-acre campus and will deliver approximately 400,000 square feet of healthcare and office space.
A separate 122,000 square foot medical office building is also part of the project and will include an ambulatory surgery center. Phase One will include 168 patient rooms, 18 operating rooms, 24 ICU beds, and 44 emergency department beds.
Construction crews have logged more than 720,000 work hours to date, with around 700 workers on site daily across 56 trade partners. The project has consumed over 33,000 cubic yards of concrete and roughly 12 miles of gas piping. Built for Florida conditions, the hospital includes redundant power systems, dual-fuel generators, and a reinforced envelope rated for 150 mph winds.
In a first for a Lee Health facility, an emergency makeup water well will keep cooling systems running if municipal water supply goes down. The site is also elevated beyond the projected 100-year flood level, with an extra foot of protection built in above that. The hospital is scheduled to open in 2028.
Project Snapshot:
Owner / Developer: Lee Health
General Contractor / CM: Skanska USA
Design Team: Flad Architects, Madison, Wisconsin
Sector: Healthcare / Hospital
Value / GMP: $435 million
Location: Fort Myers, Florida
Campus: 52 acres
Scope: 400,000 SF hospital and healthcare/office space + 122,000 SF medical office building with ambulatory surgery center
Phase One Capacity: 168 patient rooms; 24 ICU beds; 18 operating rooms; 44 emergency department beds
Construction Metrics: 720,000+ labor hours; 56 trade partners; 700 workers on site daily; 33,000+ CY of concrete; 12 miles of gas piping
Timeline / Status: Structural topping out milestone reached; scheduled to open in 2028
TheJobWalk Thoughts
Topping out on a hospital this size is a headline moment, but the labor intensive work is still ahead. On projects with operating rooms, ICUs, and emergency departments, interior buildout and systems installation routinely account for the majority of total trade hours. Medical gas, specialty electrical, nurse call, infection control detailing, and life-safety sequencing are not scopes you rough in and move on from. They require sustained, skilled labor deep into the schedule.
With 56 trade partners already on board, the primary hospital scopes are largely spoken for. But the medical office building and ambulatory surgery center are worth watching. On campus projects of this type, those packages frequently run a separate procurement cycle and come to market later than the main hospital, sometimes by several months. Specialty contractors and suppliers who missed the first wave have a realistic second window if they are paying attention.
