Developer Ponte Health Properties LLC says the FAA has approved its Vertical Medical City (VMC) development in Orlando. The developer says its planned 444 ft. structure will be the tallest building approved in the city’s downtown area in 30 years.
VMC, to be built in the northern portion of the downtown Orlando Central Business District, will be moving forward with pre-construction testing during the early weeks of the first quarter of 2019 and is currently in the Master Planning Phase, Ponte Health says in a statement.
Earlier news reports attributed a $1 billion value for the project, and said its planned height would have been 550 ft. tall.
Firm founder Tabitha Ponte met with about a half dozen engineering and architecture professionals in Lake Nona in February, 2018 to collaborate on the concept for the three-tower complex, the Orlando Sentinel reported earlier. “As conceived, the project would provide stepped care, from preventative to critical. It would be the tallest project in the Orlando area and extend about 100 feet higher than the Suntrust tower.”