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Hospital Eyes Housing as Prime Recruiting Tool

 |  By John Commins  
   May 14, 2012

Sometime in late 2013 the doors will open on a $35 million, 230-unit apartment complex in downtown Orlando that will offer its residents a five-minute walking commute to Florida Hospital Orlando.

Florida Hospital won't own the building, which is centerpiece of a new 114-acre Health Village. Instead, the health system sold the land to a local developer who agreed to give Florida Hospital employees a three-month preferred leasing option before the apartments are made available to the general public. When all apartments are rented, hospital employees will be bumped to the top of a waiting list while the hospital contemplates building more apartments.

Jody Barry, administrative director, strategic property development at Florida Hospital, says the project, which breaks ground in July, could serve as a valuable recruiting tool. "We're located in a fairly urban environment. We do have a hard time recruiting nurses and various specialties as well. Our thought was how can we create a competitive advantage in recruiting?" Barry tells HealthLeaders Media.

The availability of safe, convenient, and affordable housing in a major urban area would be a prized asset for any hospital, especially when recruiting from out of state.

"When we are talking to nurses, say in the Midwest, we can say: 'Move to Orlando, work for Florida Hospital and while you are here you can live in an apartment complex that is right near the hospital.  You can walk to work, and there is a daycare next door. You can stay in the apartment as long as you want to, or you can move somewhere else once you're settled,'" Barry says.

Florida Hospital's request for proposal in the bidding process specified that 80% of the apartments would be affordable for families earning between $40,000 and $70,000. The remaining 20% of the units would target households with incomes above $70,000. While hospital employees will be given priority in leasing, they won't get cheaper rents and the hospital won't subsidize the cost. "That triggers IRS issues," Barry says.

The idea for an apartment building near the hospital germinated in 2005 in the midst of a housing boom when affordable housing in Orlando was difficult to find.

"When we first started discussing this, the housing market was on fire and the housing costs for Orlando were becoming outrageous," Barry says. "At a hospital you are paid a fair market value based on skill. So, employees had to live far out in the suburbs. This project was a solution to put affordable housing in proximity to alleviate this."

Since then, of course, the housing market in Florida and the rest of the country has cratered. While sky-high housing costs are no longer a concern, Florida is notorious for its boom-and-bust housing cycles. Barry says there is no telling what the city's housing market might look like in a couple of years. 

For now, he believes, simple convenience could be the main draw to the new building which will be called The Ivy – Residences at Health Village. Employees who now spend 45 minutes in Orlando's notorious traffic both to and from work each day might find a five-minute walking commute more appealing.

"The economics work out," Barry says. "You can live closer for the same or lower price than you pay in the suburbs, plus you save gas and wear-and-tear on your car, and you get all that time back in your day."

In addition, the residences are a key component of the Orlando campus's Health Village concept, which will include shops, restaurants, a swimming pool, a fitness facility, garage parking, and even electric cars that can be rented by the hour for quick neighborhood jaunts. A SunRail commuter rail station will be built near the hospital for easy access to downtown Orlando.

"We are creating a medical live-work-play community and having multifamily apartments in close proximity to the hospital adds vitality. We want to create a vital community, like a small downtown type atmosphere," Barry says. "Someone could live here without owning a car."

It's not clear when The Ivy will begin writing leases, but Barry says there is already a buzz in the halls of Florida Hospital. "We hold town meetings for our employees and this project is always the most discussed topic," he says.

John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.

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