A vacant gas station lot on San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin could soon become UF Health's fifth combined emergency room and urgent care facility in Jacksonville, sitting almost next door to a competing clinic. The 1.51-acre site at 12331 San Jose Blvd. sits northeast of the intersection with Paddle Creek Drive, just south of Marbon Road and near Julington Creek, and city filings describe a concept plan for a 10,130-square-foot freestanding emergency room there.
The project, dubbed Intuitive San Jose, was detailed in reporting by the Jacksonville Daily Record, which identified Kimley-Horn and Associates of Jacksonville as the applicant and civil engineer behind the filing. According to the paper's reporting, municipal utility JEA has received a Service Availability Request determination for a freestanding emergency room on the property — a step that signals a developer is exploring site viability rather than confirming that construction is finalized. The parcel formerly held a gas station and convenience store, and site clearing and demolition permits were issued on September 2, 2025, at an estimated cost of nearly $1.22 million.
The location places UF Health directly adjacent to CareSpot Urgent Care Mandarin at 12303 San Jose Blvd., a clinic that operates in partnership with rival health system Baptist Health. It would also land roughly three miles south of HCA Florida Mandarin Emergency, a freestanding emergency department HCA Florida Healthcare already runs in the corridor, part of a network that includes similar HCA freestanding ERs in Atlantic, Normandy Park, and Park West. The clustering underscores just how competitive the San Jose Boulevard medical corridor in Mandarin has become, with major systems building out overlapping urgent care and emergency access points along the same few miles of roadway.
How UF Health's Hybrid Model Works
If built, the Mandarin site would become UF Health Jacksonville's fifth hybrid emergency and urgent care center, all operated through its partnership with Dallas-based Intuitive Health. Each of these centers is designed to provide 24-hour emergency room care alongside urgent care available seven days a week under the same roof, with the model intended to steer patients toward the emergency or lower-cost urgent care track depending on the severity of their condition.
UF Health Jacksonville's first three hybrid facilities opened in early 2023, with ribbon-cuttings at Baymeadows in January, New Kings Road in March, and Lane Avenue in April, according to UF Health Jacksonville. The Baymeadows location, at 11251 Lamb Tail Lane, spans 12,490 square feet; the New Kings Road center, at 11277 New Kings Road, covers 12,275 square feet; and the Lane Avenue facility, at 888 Lane Ave. S., totals 11,716 square feet. A fourth center, UF Health Emergency & Urgent Care – Intracoastal at 13701 Atlantic Blvd., broke ground on September 24, 2025, and is under construction, with an expected opening in early 2027. That project spans 24,865 square feet on 2.1 acres, includes a dedicated ambulance entrance along with CT, X-ray, ultrasound, EKG and laboratory services, and features physician offices on its second floor. Marand Builders Inc. of Jacksonville Beach is serving as contractor on the Intracoastal project, whose cost climbed to almost $19.3 million after a property purchase, following Shands Jacksonville Foundation Inc.'s $5 million payment for the site at 655 W. Eighth St.
What It Could Cost, and What Patients Might Pay
The Daily Record's reporting pegs the estimated project cost for the proposed Mandarin facility at $14.3 million. UF Health's Patrick L. Green has said the hybrid sites are a great addition to the system's care delivery approach, while Thom Herrmann has said a fourth Jacksonville location — the Intracoastal project — will improve shoreline residents' access to the appropriate level of care.
For patients, the hybrid model's billing structure carries real financial stakes. According to KFF Health News, roughly 70% of patients who visit UF Health's Jacksonville hybrid centers end up triaged and billed at lower urgent care rates rather than steeper ER charges, since on-site emergency physicians evaluate arrivals and route non-emergent cases to urgent care billing. The same reporting found that cash-paying patients at these facilities are charged a flat, all-inclusive $250 fee for urgent care services — though that pricing can climb to ER rates if diagnostics like bloodwork or ultrasounds become necessary.
A Broader Regional Expansion
Intuitive Health, founded in Texas in 2008 by three emergency physicians, has grown its hospital-partnership model across more than 10 states since private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners acquired a controlling stake, per KFF Health News. The company partners with more than 20 health systems nationwide to build and co-operate these dual-service centers, and industry documentation from Intuitive Health estimates that nearly 30% of U.S. emergency room visits involve non-emergent conditions that could be handled in lower-cost urgent care settings instead.
The potential Mandarin project also fits into UF Health's wider Northeast Florida build-out. The system is simultaneously constructing a $285 million health campus at Durbin Park in northern St. Johns County, including a 99-bed hospital and a 72,000-square-foot medical office building slated to open in 2026 — a project Hoodline previously covered. Regional leadership has described a strategy of pairing large inpatient hubs with a ring of suburban freestanding ERs and urgent cares, a pattern that would extend into Mandarin if the San Jose Boulevard site moves forward.
For now, the Mandarin project remains in a preliminary phase. The JEA filing signals that UF Health and its partners are testing water, sewer, and electric capacity at the site before any civil plans would advance through full city permitting, and no construction timeline has been confirmed for Intuitive San Jose.
