North Port's first acute-care hospital is rising on a 32-acre site off Interstate 75, and Sarasota Memorial Hospital says the $507 million campus is on track to open in late 2028.
The nine-story building at 4800 North Sumter Blvd. will open with 100 beds, six surgical suites, two cardiac catheterization labs and two endoscopy labs, offering emergency care, inpatient surgery, intensive care and specialty services including cardiology, orthopedics and oncology.
"We're really excited about being the first hospital in North Port and bringing our five-star health care closer to the people in that market," SMH-North Port President Jeffrey Wesner told SRQ Daily in a feature published July 20.
A three-story medical office building will sit adjacent to the hospital. Wesner said physician office space is scarce in North Port and the new building will help recruit doctors to the area.
Hospital's shell space allows capacity to double without new construction
The top three floors of the hospital are being constructed as finished shell space, allowing capacity to double to 208 beds without a new building campaign. The overall campus can eventually accommodate more than 400 beds. Wesner said building shell space into the initial construction is something no other SMH hospital has done.
The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board approved the $507 million budget to build and equip the facility in January 2025. SMH broke ground Nov. 7, 2025, at a ceremony attended by about 200 people including North Port Mayor Phil Stokes, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube and state Reps. James Buchanan and Vanessa Oliver.
"A hospital of this scale will transform the quality of life here," Stokes said at the groundbreaking, as reported by South Florida Hospital News. "For our residents, this means fewer long drives for care, more convenience and improved access to top-tier medical services right here in North Port."
Booming population has long outpaced local health care access
North Port is the largest municipality in the Sarasota-Manatee metro area, with a population of about 96,300. U-Haul ranked it the second-fastest-growing city in the country by one-way truck arrivals for the second consecutive year, according to a January Herald-Tribune report.
The city has no full-service hospital. SMH operates a freestanding emergency room there, but residents needing inpatient care must drive to SMH's Venice or Sarasota campuses.
Rival health systems are also racing to expand in the area
SMH is not the only system eyeing the market. HCA Healthcare opened a freestanding ER in Wellen Park in early 2025 with plans for a full hospital, and AdventHealth's West Florida division announced in November 2025 it would build a freestanding ER in eastern North Port with an eventual 240-bed hospital to follow.
Project's next milestones remain unannounced
SMH released a virtual tour of the hospital layout June 22. The health system has not announced a next public milestone or community meeting related to the project. SMH-North Port will be the system's third hospital, joining its flagship campus near downtown Sarasota and SMH-Venice, which opened in 2021.
Sarasota Memorial is a community-owned system governed by the elected Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, with nearly 11,000 employees across its network.
