EYE ON BUSINESS: Coastal Orthopedics plans to expand with Lakewood Ranch headquarters

After 16 years of doing business in East County, Coastal Orthopedics has decided to build its corporate headquarters in the community with an 88,000-square-foot facility on a 17-acre parcel on State Road 64, just east of Interstate 75.

The move is largely a response to rapid population growth in East County and the I-75 corridor.

"We've made a huge commitment to East County by putting our largest location, to include all of our administrative offices, out there," Coastal Orthopedics President Dr. Arthur Valadie said. "We think that's going to allow us to provide care for that whole corridor, all the way from Parrish and Ellenton, all the way down to that huge amount of growth in Lakewood Ranch and south down to Sarasota County. And the fact that we're about a half-mile off the interstate really makes all of our services accessible."

Construction is expected to begin in January. The facility will serve as the new Coastal Orthopedics headquarters and include clinical services, an ambulatory surgery center, physical therapy department, administrative offices and diagnostic imaging services such as X-ray and MRI. Coastal Orthopedics plans to move into the building in spring 2022.

“We'd like to expand our facilities where they can best meet the needs of the community,” Valadie said.

Valadie, who is an orthopedic surgeon, described the facility as an expansion of the services already provided in East County. Among the facility’s highlights will be a six-room surgery center to help address increasing demand for outpatient surgery, particularly joint replacement and spine surgeries.

"It's going to be our largest clinic location," Valadie said. "And obviously, it's going to be a large surgery center. We'd like to have our administrative offices under the same roof so that there's more seamless operations."

In addition to streamlining operations, Valadie said the site was chosen as the new headquarters because the "state-of-the-art" building will better meet the needs of Coastal Orthopedics' administrative team and provide better access to patients as well as current and potential employees. Out of the company’s 290 employees, Valadie estimated 150 to 200 of them will be based out of the new location.

The building will be designed in the style of Sarasota modern architecture (open-plan structures and large panels of glass in order to fit in with the surrounding area). BBL Construction Services, based in Albany, N.Y., will handle construction.

Coastal Orthopedics currently has two locations in Lakewood Ranch (8340 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., and a freestanding surgery center at 1917 Worth Court), one in west Bradenton (6015 Pointe West Blvd.) and one in east Bradenton (5101 Fourth Ave. Circle East). 

All of Coastal Orthopedics' existing facilities will remain operational until the new building is complete. Once the new building opens, the existing east Bradenton office and the freestanding surgery center will relocate to become part of the new facility.