JACKSONVILLE, FL-Paying top dollar for a prime location, locally based Baptist Health hospital has closed its $9.5 million purchase of a 32-acre tract in Flagler Center where the hospital plans to break ground by summer on a 250,000-sf hospital and 80,000-sf physicians' office building.

The land price in the 1,022-acre Flagler Center at Interstate 95 and Old St. Augustine Road equates to $296,875 per acre or $6.81 per sf. The deal took almost two years to close after the contract was signed in July 2001. Gresham Smith & Partners, an affiliate of Jacksonville, FL-based Haskell Co., is designing the campus which is tentatively scheduled for completion by yearend 2004.

Tied in with the project's location is a new $20 million interchange that Flagler is constructing at I-95 and Old St. Augustine Road. The interchange is tentatively scheduled for completion by spring 2004.