This Florida Health System Is Repurposing Former Bookstores and Drugstores As Outpatient Medical Centers and Freestanding ERs
Over the past year BayCare Health System has acquired multiple former Barnes & Noble and CVS drugstore buildings in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area for adaptive reuse as healthcare properties
BayCare operates 16 hospitals in Florida and is the state’s 3rd largest hospital network.
But more recently the Clearwater, FL-based health system has been growing its real estate footprint by adding outpatient medical facilities, surgery care centers and freestanding emergency room sites.
Including via the adaptive reuse of former retail properties.
Over the past few months BayCare has acquired former a pair of former Barnes & Noble bookstores in Tampa and St. Petersburg as well as a CVS drugstore building in South Tampa.
Now plans are under way for the adaptive reuse of these Big Box and drugstore buildings as outpatient medical centers and freestanding ERs.
From Bookstore to Medical Center
Next Fall BayCare will be opening a 32,000 square foot, expanded primary care facility at a property in the Carrollwood neighborhood of Tampa that it acquired last year for $10.5 MM.
The site will offer urgent care, outpatient imaging, lab services and medical offices for specialty practice groups.
The building’s prior use?
It had operated as a Barnes & Noble bookstore for 28 years.
A Bookstore to Freestanding ER Conversion
BayCare also recently acquired another soon-to-be vacated Barnes & Noble building for a retail-to-healthcare conversion.
This past January the hospital system acquired a ~15,000 square foot Barnes & Noble store in St. Petersburg, FL for $10 MM.
BayCare plans to repurpose the building as a ~$30 MM freestanding emergency room facility.
Freestanding ERs provide the same emergency services as hospital ERs but are generally located in dense residential areas and provide quicker access and shorter wait times for patients.
As for Barnes & Noble? The bookseller has operated at the St. Petersburg site for 33 years though will be closing in the coming months.
But Barnes & Noble may elect to relocate to another nearby property — just like it did in Carrollwood after vacating its store for BayCare.
In fact the new Barnes & Noble Carrollwood site opened just last week at the Palms of Carrollwood Shopping Center along Dale Mabry Highway.
In a converted former Bed Bath & Beyond store.
A Former CVS Drugstore Site May Become a Freestanding ER
BayCare is also targeting other recently vacated retail properties for repurpose and adaptive reuse.
Like former drugstores.
Earlier this year BayCare acquired a recently vacated CVS drugstore in South Tampa.
It has already submitted a rezoning request with city officials to convert the former CVS into a ~13,000 square foot freestanding ER.
These adaptive reuse projects represent only a small part of BayCare’s recent real estate acquisition spree.
Its largest recent deal was a ~$145 MM purchase in February of three office buildings that total over 600,000 square feet as well as two parking garages with ~2,500 spaces that are located a 36 acre parcel just west of its St. Joseph Hospital Campus in Tampa.
This purchase nearly doubles BayCare’s property holdings near its St. Joseph Hospital in West Tampa which is located across the street from the headquarters and practice facility of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team.
Initially BayCare plans to consolidate its regional office locations at the property as well as develop a headquarters for its graduate medical education and research programs.
But eventually the office buildings and parking garages might be tapped for other uses.
Or, perhaps, creative adaptive reuses.
