The new College of Medicine will locate near Lake Nona. If you travel SR 417, you will notice the new interchange construction near Narcoossee Road. The large construction area to the South of this area is the new College of Medicine along with other health care facilities – California-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a Veteran’s Administration hospital, Nemours Children’s Hospital and M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Institute.
Upon completion, this area will likely be known as the Lake Nona Medical City.
The first economic point is new jobs for the area. An economic study estimates 30,000 new jobs for Orlando. These jobs are primarily associated with health care and life sciences. There will be health care workers who staff Nemours and the VA Hospital. There will be researchers, technicians, and educators. Finally, there will be support and service staff for these huge facilities that will be part of Medical City.
The economic impact will be significant for the Orlando area. The same economic study reports an overall impact of $7.6 billion. About one-third of this impact is wages from the 30,000 jobs created. The rest comes from new construction and infrastructure improvements as well as new business to support the Medical City and its employees.
The first students at the College of Medicine begin this August. It will be a few years before Orlando realizes the full impact of the Lake Nona Medical City. However, Medical City is another key industry for Orlando. Since it is only about 30 minutes from University Estates, we should all benefit from Medical City.
This is the second in a series of short articles for the University Estates Home Owners Association. In these articles, we will provide our residents of local activities of potential interest. We will begin with information about the University of Central Florida. We are working with the UCF administration to provide information on education, entertainment, sports, and other community activities.