HCA Florida North Florida Hospital representatives and employees gathered with Charles Perry Partner Inc. (CPPI) construction crew at HCA’s new Gainesville hospital building site on Monday for a Topping Out ceremony. 

The event celebrating the completion of the structural phase of the hospital’s construction featured a catered lunch for crew members from Cowboyz Bar BQ, music from Tu Fiesta Radio, a raffle of flat-screen TVs, coolers and grills, and a crane hoisting two steel ceremonial beams to the top of the structure. 

Each beam donned HCA’s mission statement, “Above all else, we are committed to the care and improvement of human life,” as well as American and Florida flags, evergreen tree trimmings and signatures from all who have contributed to the new hospital project.  

“Today really is a celebration of all of our partners who are building this hospital,” said Eric Lawson, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital CEO. “When you build a hospital, you’re building something truly special…through your labor, you are saving lives. You’re not building something for the next two to three years. You’re building something that will be here 100 years from now, and the number of lives that you will touch is truly countless.” 

After over a decade of planning, crews broke ground on the new hospital at 4094 SW 41st Boulevard in May 2024. The 200,000-square-foot facility is an addition to the freestanding HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency Room at the same location, which Lawson said has treated close to 4,000 patients.  

The new full-service acute care hospital will hold 90 beds, 60 medical surgical beds, operating rooms, radiology and inpatient rehab departments, and staff around 300 employees. In addition to HCA’s already established North Florida Hospital, four free-standing ER’s and numerous physician clinics in Gainesville, the organization will continue growing its Graduate Medicare Education program through the new hospital. 

HCA Florida North Florida Hospital COO Mark Amox said the hospital’s location will increase care to patients on the outskirts of Gainesville.  

“The North Florida campus is a 50-year-old campus,” he said. “It’s an incredible hospital, but we’re a little bit landlocked…This piece of land was available and a much better opportunity for us to have future growth to serve a part of the town that really needs more access out towards Archer and Levy County.” 

The current 180 CPPI and contracted construction crew members building the hospital will grow to around 400 in order to see the project through its November 2025 finish line and March 2026 grand opening. By April, the outside of the building will be wrapped in white paneling and interior installations of air-conditioning will begin. 

Bryan Harrington, CPPI vice president and regional manager, said proactive planning and community support have been key to avoiding big hurdles and setbacks along the way. 

“There’s been a lot of really good community partners,” he said. “We’ve worked closely with the city, with the county and GRU all to make this happen. We released a lot of the big equipment over a year ago so that it could show up now in time to support the project.” 

Harrington also shared some of the history behind Topping Out ceremonies. He said the tradition dates back to ancient times in Scandinavia when builders who cut down trees to make room for new structures wanted to pay homage to tree nymphs they believed to live in the trees. 

Once the highest wooden beam of the structure was set in place, a pine tree would be placed on top to honor the nymphs and bring good fortune and favor on the building. The tree would also mark time for the project. 

“Once the needles had fallen from that pine tree, they knew that the wood and the timber frame structure had dried out enough so they could commence with drying in the building,” Harrington said. 

Wylie Steel Fabricators crews working on the new HCA hospital said the hardest part of working on the project had been the weather since everything they do is outside.  

Paula Risley is the project’s superintendent and is known as “the boss lady,” since she’s the only woman on the construction crew. Risley helped secure the crane to the ceremonial beams and said that getting to be part of something like building a hospital that will have an ongoing impact makes the hard work extra rewarding. 

“Stuff changes every day. You get to look at something new all the time,” she said. “It’s fun. I think it’s going to do really good things for this community.”