Lee Memorial Health System officials filed a letter of intent with state healthcare regulators Wednesday to build a new hospital in South Lee County. 

Earlier this month, Health Management Associates also filed a letter of intent to move its Lehigh Acres hospital to another location along the Alico Road corridor in South Lee County.

Lee Memorial Health System’s proposal is for a new 80-bed hospital on a 33-acre site south of Coconut Point Mall and adjacent to the Bonita Community Health Center near both the Estero and Bonita Springs communities.  The health system purchased the land in 2005 and 2006. 

“When we purchased the land originally, the plan was always to develop a hospital on that site,” said LMHS Project Manager Suzanne Braddock.  “When the economy slowed down we put our plans on hold to wait for the appropriate time in which to develop the hospital and to try to move forward on a certificate of need application.”

LMHS officials decided that time is now because earlier this month, Health Management Associates, which owns Lehigh Regional Medical Center filed their own letter of intent to close the Lehigh Acres hospital and build a new one along the Alico Road corridor in Estero.

“We thought that we needed to accelerate our plans because we did not think it likely that the state would approve two hospitals in the relatively same location,” said Braddock.

LMHS officials describe their letter of intent as just a placeholder for now. 

The health system’s board members will vote Feb. 28 on whether to go forward with the application process required by the state.  The final applications for both the HMA and LMHS hospital proposals are due in April with a decision from the state Agency for Health Care Administration coming in June.

Braddock says details including how long it would take to build the hospital, how much it would cost and how many new jobs it would create are yet to be worked out.