Florida Construction News staff writer
Mount Sinai Medical Center has broken ground on a new emergency center in the heart of Westchester, launching a multi-phase project that will eventually become the health system’s second hospital in South Florida.
The facility, located at 8200 SW Eighth St., is scheduled to open in mid-2026 and will provide full emergency care services to more than 50,000 area residents.
“This groundbreaking represents more than just the beginning of construction — it’s a commitment to the Westchester community that nationally recognized, high-quality healthcare is coming,” said Gino R. Santorio, president and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Phase One includes a four-story, 112,000-sq. ft. building — nearly double the size of Mount Sinai’s Hialeah facility — and will house the hospital’s largest freestanding emergency department. The emergency center will feature 27 emergency bays, a Baker Act receiving unit, and advanced imaging services including MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds. A café and cafeteria will also be located on the first floor for patients and visitors.
Phase Two will involve the build-out of inpatient and observation beds across the second through fourth floors. It will also include operating rooms, a cardiac catheterization lab, gastrointestinal procedure suites, and post-anesthesia care units. That phase is expected to be completed by late 2027, pending design finalization.
Phase Three, currently in the early planning stage, will add a second building focused on outpatient multi-specialty practices.
Mount Sinai officials say the expansion is part of the system’s continued push to serve medically underserved areas in South Florida. The Westchester project follows recent Mount Sinai investments in East Hialeah and Key West.
“Healthcare should meet people where they are,” said Barry Skolnick, chairman of Mount Sinai’s board of trustees. “We are thrilled to break ground in Westchester and look forward to opening a facility that will serve this community for generations to come.”
