Punta Gorda approves parking for new AdventHealth hospital

The return of a hospital to Punta Gorda moved closer to fruition after City Council granted variances allowing additional parking spaces and other allowances for a planned 17.46-acre AdventHealth hospital campus at 26072 Glasgow Ave., near Jones Loop Road.

Previously, the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals recommended approval of AdventHealth Port Charlotte Inc.’s variance request for the project, and the matter went before City Council. But the matter returned Oct. 28 due to a “technical advertising reason,” zoning official Rachel Barry said.

The project would bring a hospital back to Punta Gorda after ShorePoint Health Punta Gorda permanently closed following extensive flooding from hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. The city had been home to a hospital since 1947.

The separate development application has already been approved for three phases, the first of which will be a 12-bed, 16,235-square-foot off-site emergency department building.

The emergency department eventually would expand to 24 beds and 22,500 square feet and connect to a four-story, 200,000-square-foot hospital with 80 beds.

A two-story, 30,000-square-foot medical office building also is planned adjacent to the hospital.

AdventHealth paid $6 million for the property, according to Compass Real Estate.

Groundbreaking for the project is slated for November.

Represented by Jake Pretzell of Catalyst Design Group, the authorized agent for AdventHealth Port Charlotte Inc., and attorney Derek Rooney of GrayRobinson, the hospital system sought variances that would allow six parking spaces per bed instead of 1.2 spaces under code, and one space per 150 square feet for the OSED instead of one space per 400 square feet.

Also, city code requires parking to be located behind the facade, while emergency room plans call for parking in front of the facility and on a hard surface, rather than sod or grass as the code requires.

During testimony, representatives said that because it will be a hospital campus where patients might be in wheelchairs, a grass surface would impede their movement and not provide adequate stability.

Following testimony from Pretzell and Rooney and feedback from the public, City Council voted unanimously to grant the variances.

Members of the public provided input on the variance request, including Realtor Kurt Havel.

“Whatever we can do to help them, I hope we do, because I’ve had conversations with 100 customers over the years as a Realtor, and they all seem to want to go to Sarasota Memorial,” Havel said. “Whatever we can do to get a good hospital in Punta Gorda, I’m all for it.”

Resident Tim Ritchie, an environmental activist who calls himself the “Water Czar,” said he wished the hospital would consider using sod rather than pavement because he was concerned about runoff on pavement that otherwise would recharge the aquifer.

But he favored the project and granting the parking variance.

“We need another hospital,” he said.

Rooney said he consulted with the engineering team and learned that the project’s stormwater facility “will be superior and will help to clean water and do the recharge, as well.”

“I am grateful that this is finally before us — we’re ready to approve it; it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Vice Mayor Jeannine Polk.

Mayor Debi Lux said, “We look forward to having a hospital there,” and she vowed that the city will be reviewing its land development regulations “to make future project approval processes much easier.”