Ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark second milestone of East Gainesville project
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The City of Gainesville will celebrate the very foundation of a transformational project in East Gainesville with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Eastside Health and Economic Development Initiative (EHEDI) at Cornerstone.
The City has completed a new roadway and infrastructure system at the municipal 21-acre site, designed to support economic development, improve access, and promote long-term growth in East Gainesville.
When: 9-11 a.m. on Friday, July 18
Where: 457 SE 20th St.
Scheduled to speak are Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward; Gainesville City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker, District 1; Alachua County Board of County Commissioners Chair Chuck Chestnut; and University of Florida Health Sr. Vice President Michael Holmes.
The new roadway network includes SE 20th Street – a new north-south connector between SE Hawthorne Road and SE 8th Avenue. In addition, SE 6th Avenue has been extended through a new intersection at SE 20th Street, continuing east to the Gainesville Teaching and Entrepreneurial Community (GTEC) Center.
Beneath the roadway is an extensive infrastructure system of conduits for water, wastewater, stormwater, electrical, and street lighting. Utility connections and preliminary site work at the four adjacent undeveloped parcels at EHEDI make each one ready for construction (“pad-ready”). The infrastructure investment totaled $3.8 million.
Key components at EHEDI:
- UF Health Urgent Care Center – Eastside (Opened in 2024; City and County each contributed $2.25M in ARPA funding)
- Roadway network and infrastructure system (Completed)
- Regional Transit System transfer station (Pad-ready; construction expected to begin mid-2026)
- Mixed-use development: office, retail, food hub/grocery (Pad-ready)
EHEDI at Cornerstone is a major redevelopment effort led by the City’s economic development department – the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area – in partnership with Alachua County and UF Health.
The medical facility will lose a lot of business once medicaid cuts become reality.
@Joe — People with private health insurance go there, too. Not everyone on the Eastside is on public assistance. 🙄
Transformation into what?
So far the new businesses are gov’t, gov’t-subsidized, or labs with ID tag securely locked doors 24/7.
The retail remains liquor stores and drive-thrus for fried food.
But they’ve got new roads.
Don’t want to rush into these things. It’ll take at least another 10-20 years and more millions before anything is actually built there.
Does the Eastside project include a new sheriff substation? If not….it needs one.
No idiot the sheriff main building is right down the road
More like a ‘millstone’ (around the taxpayers neck) instead of a ‘milestone’.
Fix the roads on the westside….that’s who’s paying the bills.
Cool. I hate trucking out to North Fl or Shands Springtree for routine things. Eastside location is convenient for a lot of people East of NW 13th street.