SARASOTA, Fla. (Aug. 11, 2025) – As Sarasota Memorial Health Care System prepares to begin clearing land for North Port’s first full-service hospital, SMH leaders are already planning the future expansion of the south county campus.
The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board approved spending $57 million to add three floors of shell space to the 100-bed hospital, and one floor of shell space to an attached medical office building. That will bring the total cost of the project to $507 million.
A groundbreaking is planned for November. When completed, Sarasota Memorial Hospital-North Port will be nine stories tall, and the adjacent medical office building will be three stories. Adding shell space now rather than waiting five years or more will allow SMH to quickly double the inpatient capacity from 100 to 208 beds and increase the medical office space from 60,000 to 90,000 square feet.
“Given the rapid growth in the south county region, and the escalation of cost and impact of future construction, we felt it made sense, financially and operationally, to design the first tower so that it can be expanded quickly with less impact on patients, staff and hospital operations,” said David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.
Building a hospital in North Port has been part of Sarasota Memorial's growth plan for many years. In January, the Hospital Board approved building the health system's third acute-care hospital - and the City of North Port's first - on property SMH owns on North Sumter Boulevard near Interstate-75.
Hospital staff have been working with North Port and other regulatory officials throughout 2024 and 2025 to obtain the planning approvals needed to begin developing the Sumter site, as well as a new campus in nearby Wellen Park. Plans for Wellen Park are still being evaluated.
Slated to open in fall of 2028, the 100-bed hospital on Sumter Boulevard will offer a comprehensive range of emergency, medical, surgical and specialty care, a full complement of diagnostic and outpatient services, and primary and specialty physician practices in the adjacent medical office building.
The first floor will include emergency, radiology/imaging, administrative and support services, as well as a cafeteria and coffee bar; the second floor will house surgical and procedural areas; and floors four through six will be dedicated patient care units with 100 private rooms for admitted patients. The third floor is reserved for mechanical space. Floors 7-9 will be built as open shells and finished in a future phase. Long range master plans for SMH-North Port include a flexible campus design that can expand to more than 400 beds (that would involve a future phase requiring planning, permitting and funding approvals).
Jeff Wesner, who previously served as chief operating officer of SMH-Venice, was named president of SMH-North Port on Aug. 4. Along with Sharon Roush, president of SMH-Venice and SMH's south county market, Wesner played a key role in the successful opening of the Venice campus in November of 2021, and last year helped guide Venice's expansion, doubling hospital capacity with the opening of a new bed tower and enlargement of the Emergency Care Center/OR.
He is looking forward to replicating that success with the teams that will build and open SMH-North Port.
"SMH-North Port has been part of our growth plans for many years, and we are eager to break ground in November," Wesner said. "With medical facilities that now stretch from east Manatee County to our comprehensive healthcare center and ER in North Port, SMH has the medical infrastructure in place to support a full-service hospital in North Port and extend SMH's 5-star care to the growing south county region."
For future updates on SMH-North Port, visit: smh.com/NorthPortUpdates
About Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional medical center offering Southwest Florida’s greatest breadth and depth of care, with 2,500 physicians and advanced practice providers and nearly 2 million patient visits a year across its network of care. Sarasota County’s largest employer, the community-owned health system includes two full-service hospitals in Sarasota and Venice, freestanding ERs in North Port and Lakewood Ranch, a rehabilitation hospital, behavioral health hospital, skilled nursing facility and comprehensive network of outpatient centers, urgent care clinics and physician practices. Founded in 1925, SMH is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2025 and encouraging community members to visit smh.com/100 throughout the year for centennial events and updates.