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Northeast Florida Roundup
Mayo Clinic plans multimillion-dollar proton therapy center in Jacksonville
INNOVATION
More Proton Therapy in Jacksonville
The Mayo Clinic plans to build a $233-million, 140,000-sq.-ft. cancer care center in Jacksonville, where patients will have access to, among other things, the newest form of proton therapy — pencil beam scanning.
The technology uses a proton beam about the size of a pencil to precisely deliver radiation to a patient’s tumor, destroying the cancer while minimizing damage to nearby healthy tissue and organs, experts say.
When the facility opens in late 2023, Mayo will be the third proton therapy provider in Jacksonville, along with UF Health and privately owned Ackerman Cancer Center. UF Health’s Proton Therapy Institute will soon complete a $39-million expansion in Jacksonville, giving it two proton therapy systems, both with pencil beam scanning technology.
Since opening in 2006, the UF institute has been “a world leader in proton therapy,” says Executive Director Stuart Klein. “That has paved the way for other local providers to emulate and follow our lead.”
UTILITIES
- After authorizing staff to begin looking at ways to privatize JEA, the municipal utility’s board hired financial and legal advisers to field offers from potential buyers. JEA CEO Aaron Zahn has said privatization could allow the utility, which faces declining sales, to avoid layoffs and rate hikes. In an earnings call, FPL’s parent company, Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy, suggested it may be interested in acquiring JEA. “We think we would bring a lot to the customers of those utilities in Florida who would be interested in selling,” NextEra Energy CEO Jim Robo said.
HOSPITALITY
- Lake City Hotels plans to build a TownePlace Suites by Marriott and a Tru by Hilton near Jacksonville International Airport next year.
- Gold Coast Premier Properties will develop a 122-room WoodSpring Suites hotel near a proposed Bentley dealership off I-95 in Jacksonville.
- Tampa-based Impact Properties will develop the first hotel in Wildlight, a new development in Nassau County. The 106-room Marriott-branded hotel is to open in 2020.
- Miami-based Baywood Hotels is developing a 136-room Residence Inn by Marriott in downtown Jacksonville’s Brooklyn neighborhood.
REAL ESTATE
- CSX will spend about $4 million to renovate the third floor of its headquarters and a dispatch center in Jacksonville.
- Jacksonville is seeking bids from developers to buy the former Florida National Guard armory building on two acres downtown, with an option to redevelop an adjacent three-acre site. The Gothic Revival-style armory, built in 1908, has been vacant since 2010.
- Pennsylvania-based Somerset Properties bought a 417,513-sq.-ft. office complex called Capital Plaza in Deerwood Park for about $52 million.
- Jacksonville-based Vestcor has begun the approval process for a mixed-use development on four acres formerly occupied by Bank of America in the Murray Hill neighborhood near downtown. Plans call for 117 apartment units, retail space and surface parking.
- Heritage Development proposed a master-planned community called Parrish Farms on about 2,800 acres near I-95 in southern St. Johns County. The 20-year project includes up to 1,700 single-family homes, 2,000 multifamily units and 4 million square feet of office, retail, hotel and light-industrial development.
