A free-standing emergency department is in the exploratory stage at northwest Beach and Kernan boulevards on land owned by St. Vincent’s Health System.
City utility JEA received a service availability determination request June 13 for a possible 12,000-square-foot building on the almost 5-acre site that St. Vincent’s bought in March 2020 for $4.5 million.
The address is 12705 Beach Blvd. The applicant is MOA Architecture of Denver.
The application states that the applicant wants to confirm available services for the site, including reclaimed water. It states there is a Planned Unit Development requirement to tie into reclaimed water if it is available at the site.
St. Vincent’s HealthCare is a member of Ascension, a nonprofit Catholic health care system.
Gary Nevolis, senior director of external communications for Ascension Florida, said in a June 20 email that the organization will share information when it was available about the land.
Healthcare.Ascension.org shows four area stand-alone emergency care centers in Arlington, Southside and Westside in Jacksonville and in Middleburg in Clay County.
In February 2020, before the land purchase, JEA issued a service availability letter for EnVision Design + Engineering LLC for a project named West Kernan FSED. Ascension wasn’t listed on that service availability letter, but the project was described as a 15,000-square-foot free-standing emergency department on outparcels at Beach and Kernan.
Ascension St. Vincent’s bought the land from West Kernan Loan Acquisition LLC, whose managing member is Tamaya Property Holdings LLC.
The primary ER is at the Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside Hospital at Shircliff Way and Riverside Avenue, along the St. Johns River about 2.5 miles southwest of Downtown.
The website says St. Louis-based Ascension operates 140 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities in 19 states and the District of Columbia.