Baptist Health wins approval for 100-bed hospital in Sunrise

Baptist Health South Florida won approval for a seven-story, 100-bed hospital in Sunrise — a city with a population of about 90,000 but no hospital.

The Sunrise City Commission on Tuesday approved a site plan for the Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital and a special exception allowing hospital operations on the vacant 25-acre development site at 12401 West Oakland Park Boulevard.

“We’re going to spend probably $500 million in Sunrise,” Bo Boulenger, president and CEO of Baptist Health, said at the commission meeting. “We’re probably going to hire at least 600 employees.”

Two years ago, the Sunrise City Commission voted to sell the 25-acre, city-owned development site to Baptist Health for $14.3 million. The commission conditioned its approval on delivery of a site plan for a 100-bed hospital.

Coral Gables-based Baptist Health, a not-for-profit, faith-based hospital system, beat a competitive joint bid for the 25-acre site from two tax-supported hospital systems, Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare. 

City commissioners who favored the bid by Baptist Health cited unkept promises by Broward Health to build a hospital elsewhere in Sunrise, at Pine Island Road and Oakland Park Boulevard, where Broward Health acquired about 8 acres in 2002.