Cape Coral vA clinic draws development interest

The planned $131 million Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Cape Coral is already fueling interest in development near the proposed facility.

Plans are in the works for an assisted living facility, hotel and other businesses on 20 acres of land near the proposed clinic.

Within the past two weeks, developers from Tampa met with planning officials from the city and the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council to discuss the new project.

“The VA clinic is spurring the interest in development near the site,” said Patrick White, a city planner.

The assisted living facility and hotel would be located at the intersection of Pine Island Road and Corbett Road at the northeastern entrance to Cape Coral.

That’s just south of the clinic site at Corbett and Diplomat Parkway.

The assisted living facility would have 200 to 220 beds and hotel 80 to 110 rooms, said Fred Drovdlic, of Quattrone & Associates, the project planner.

The proposed project, White said, meshes with the VA clinic.

People at the assisted living facility could go the short distance to the clinic for outpatient day care, he said.

The hotel offers a place to stay for people being treated at the clinic. Members of their families could also stay there, Drovdlic said.

Other businesses, such as a drug store, may also want to build on the site, Drovdlic said.

He said that it would take about 6 to 9 months to get the necessary approval of the city and the regional planning council and construction could begin in late 2010 or early 2011 if everything falls into place.

With the current recession, such projects are needed, said Patti Schnell, executive director of the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association.

“Anything that is going to put people to work is welcome,” she said.

Cape Coral, Schnell said, is going to continue to grow and as the population ages, will need more assisted living and medical facilities.

“I think the Cape is the best place to go right now” to build such facilities, said Richard Byrd, president of Gulf Coast Consulting Group.

He said the firm is under contract right now to build an assisted living facility — with day care for Alzheimer’s patients — in Cape Coral and another in Lehigh Acres.

Byrd said he won’t disclose the locations yet, but he hopes to make an announcement in April.