'Extremely excited': Primary care, urgent care opens at medical office building in PCB

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The first piece of the Beach's long-awaited medical campus is now accepting patients.

According to Andrew Starr, chief health operations officer for Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare (TMH), primary care and urgent care clinics opened on July 15 at the medical office building near State 79 and Philip Griffitts Sr. Parkway in Panama City Beach.

Construction of the approximately 80,000-square-foot building broke ground in January 2023. It was built through a partnership between the St. Joe Company, TMH and Florida State University.

"There is a wealth of enthusiasm," Starr said. "We started this project a few years back and really have had a very aggressive construction (schedule) over the last 16 to 18 months. For us personally, we're extremely excited, (but) this is just the beginning."

He noted the medical office building also will house centers for additional services including ambulatory surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, gynecology and dermatology.

The ambulatory surgery and cardiology centers are slated to open by about August or September, with the others scheduled to open sometime by the end of 2025.

A hospital will then be built on the campus. Starr, who hopes for its construction to begin no later than the first quarter of 2025, said its initial shell will be able to house 180 beds. He expects for the hospital to open sometime in 2027 with about 80 beds.

Looking back: Medical office building for Panama City Beach's first hospital should open in a few months

Plans call for additional hospital beds, as well as more medical office buildings, to be built based on demand.

"This is just the beginning," Starr said. "When you look at our campus, we have a total of 87 acres, about two-thirds of which is actually workable. The long-range plan for the campus allows us to (construct) a hospital that could be as big as 600 beds, and also add three additional medical office buildings, each being up to 100,000 square feet."

As of July 19, officials with St. Joe, TMH and FSU still were working to finalize an official name for the medical campus.

"In talking with the citizens of Panama City Beach, Bay County and even Walton and surrounding counties, I think they share our enthusiasm," Starr said. "They are very excited about the idea of having another healthcare destination."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: 'Extremely excited': Primary care, urgent care opens at medical office building in PCB