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AdventHealth Is Building Its First Hospital in The Villages — And It’s Only the Beginning

Studs Team

Studs Team

— 1 min read
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The Villages just landed its first hospital — and it took a 700-acre mixed-use project to make it happen. AdventHealth has announced plans to build an 80-bed hospital on 25 acres inside Legacy Place, a joint development between The Villages and Benderson Development positioned as the southern gateway to the sprawling retirement community. The broader Legacy Place project is expected to include more than 3 million square feet of retail, residential, and commercial space near County Road 470 and Central Parkway along Florida’s Turnpike. Construction on the hospital is slated to begin in 2027, with a 2030 completion target. Legacy Place’s first components — retail and the hospital — are set to open in early 2027, with more phases to follow.

The case for this project isn’t hard to make. The Wildwood-The Villages metro area has surpassed 150,000 residents and grown by 20% over the past four years, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. AdventHealth’s closest hospitals right now are in Ocala and Tavares — a gap that’s been obvious for anyone watching the population charts. The health system already operates multiple CentraCare offices in the area and has a freestanding ER in Fruitland Park opening this summer, plus new medical offices in the Middleton community coming in fall 2026. The hospital in Legacy Place is the capstone of what has clearly been a deliberate, multi-year strategy to build a full-service presence in one of Florida’s fastest-growing markets.

For the construction industry, this is the kind of project that creates sustained pipeline. A hospital buildout of this scale — MEP, medical gas, specialty interiors, imaging suites, surgical spaces — requires highly specialized trades and long lead times on equipment and materials. Add the surrounding Legacy Place retail and residential phases, and you’re looking at years of work in a single corridor. Subs, suppliers, and GCs operating in Sumter, Marion, and Lake counties should be watching this project closely. County Road 470 is about to get a whole lot busier.

By the Numbers

  • 80-bed hospital on 25 acres within Legacy Place
  • 700-acre total development footprint
  • 3M+ sq. ft. of planned retail, residential, and commercial space
  • 150,000+ metro-area residents, up 20% in four years
  • Hospital construction start: 2027 | Completion target: 2030

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