Growing HMO to add third location in Holly Hill to accommodate its expanding workforce
HOLLY HILL — Florida Health Care Plans recently paid more than $1 million to acquire the former SunTrust building two blocks north of its headquarters on Ridgewood Avenue.
The area's largest health maintenance organization says it has doubled its members the past two years to nearly 93,000 in five counties, including Volusia and Flagler.
That growth has created Florida Health Care Plans' need to expand its workforce, which now numbers more than 1,200 employees.
"We continually add employees," said Florida Health Care Plans spokeswoman Bissy Holden while standing in front of an electronic reader board in front of the headquarters flashing the message, "We are hiring/Join our team!"
So what's been driving that growth?
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, said Holden, who added that the HMO also has expanded to include members and operations in neighboring Seminole, Brevard and St. Johns counties.
Florida Health Care Plans plans to invest $2.2 million to renovate the old SunTrust building at 1510 Ridgewood Ave., which has been vacant the past year. Planned improvements include redoing the building's facade and installing new landscaping.
"This is a landmark building and we are very pleased that it will become a key building for Florida Health Care Plans," said Holly Hill Mayor John Penny.
The renovated two-story, 14,000-square-foot building will include a members-only pharmacy with drive-through lanes, a lab with EKG services and other operations and will accommodate 60 workers upon completion of the project in mid-2019.
Florida Health Care Plans is Holly Hill's largest employer with 485 workers at its headquarters and in a leased building across the street.
Nick Conte, the city's economic development director, said he immediately let Florida Health Care Plans know about the availability of the former SunTrust building when the bank decided to close the longtime local branch last year, adding that he was aware that the HMO was looking for additional space.
Conte said he has been told that the new facility will include a "pharmacy of tomorrow" complete with high-tech services in addition to the four former bank drive-through lanes that will be kept to make it easier for members to pick up prescription orders.
Florida Health Care Plans completed its purchase of the property on May 8, confirmed Holden.
"The Florida Health Care Plans sales and service center project will create direct positive impacts, as well as ignite secondary opportunities throughout the US 1 (Ridgewood) corridor," Conte said. He added that the former SunTrust building is close enough that Florida Health Care Plans employees could travel from its headquarters building to the soon-to-be new facility via golf cart on the residential side road one block west of Ridgewood.
Florida Health Care Plans has occupied its 97,000-square-foot four-story headquarters building since the early 1990s.
"We are pleased that this building in the heart of Holly Hill became available," said Wendy Myers, the CEO of Florida Health Care Plans. "It is centrally located and will housing many services under one roof, which is particularly convenient for our members."