The Virginia-based medical school hoping to expand its student training program and open a four-year campus in Vero’s busy medical corridor has made an offer to purchase 5 acres of land plus a three-story building owned by the Indian River County Hospital District.
The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine or VCOM has been leasing the property from the taxpayers since October 2024.
“VCOM submitted an offer to purchase the Human Resources Building on June 1, 2026, for the price of $4.65 million,” said Dana McNally, one of the Hospital District’s attorneys, at the June business meeting.
The property is located at 1110 35th Lane, directly behind the hospital, down the hill from the emergency department entrance. It is best known as the former longtime offices of the Visiting Nurse Association. It includes a three-story building constructed in 1987, a parking lot and several acres of vacant land between 11th Drive and the curve of 35th Lane.
A three-minute walk from the hospital, the 43,770-square-foot building, though old and in disrepair, is the ideal spot to educate medical students and residents who will train under Cleveland Clinic’s physicians. VCOM plans to build a state-of-the-art simulation lab plus classroom space and on-call areas for students and residents.
The existing lease requires $5 million in capital investments in $1 million per year increments in lieu of rent, but due to uncertainty over accreditation and residency slots, VCOM had not made the first $1 million investment by last October, so district trustees extended the lease terms pending the 2026 session of the Florida Legislature. When session ended and VCOM had not achieved its goals with the legislature, trustees asked for an offer to buy the property.
VCOM Dean of Students Dr. Matthew Cannon told district trustees earlier this year that the school is careful about investing in property without a guarantee of successful accreditation, as 98 percent of the school’s funding comes from student tuition. VCOM has no philanthropy program to speak of, so no private funding.
To move ahead with its Vero Beach medical school campus, VCOM must convince legislators to add it to a preferred list of institutions authorized to operate a post-graduate medical residency program in Florida. While VCOM has sent dozens of third- and fourth-year medical students to Vero Beach for clinical rotations for two decades, those students received their classroom training at an accredited VCOM campus out of state.
More than 400 Florida students have graduated from VCOM over the school’s 25-year history, with VCOM currently admitting 50 to 60 Floridians per year at its four campuses.
Over the past year VCOM officials have determined that owning a future campus, as opposed to renting, could strengthen its case to get on the preferred list as an out-of-state-based medical school.
Cleveland Clinic Florida, as part of its 75-year-lease on the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital campus, has a right of first refusal on the property VCOM has offered to buy.
“The offer was sent to Council for Cleveland Clinic on June 2, 2026, to trigger Cleveland Clinic’s right of first refusal evaluation,” McNally said. Cleveland Clinic has until Aug. 1 “to advise of whether they intend to purchase the property under the same terms proposed by VCOM.”
Any interference by the hospital is highly unlikely, as Cleveland Clinic has repeatedly expressed its commitment to work with VCOM to expand medical student clinical rotations in Vero and establish a residency program here.
“We welcome the plans and are excited about the opportunity to expand medical education across the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital campus,” said Dr. Richard Rothman, vice president and chief medical officer at the hospital.
The building VCOM wants to buy, known as the Human Services Building or HSB, could end up becoming a tear-down post-sale if VCOM finds it’s less expensive to build a new facility than to undertake extensive renovations. VCOM has built attractive red-brick medical school buildings at its satellite campuses in Auburn, Ala., Spartanburg, S.C. and Monroe, La. in addition to its original campus in Blacksburg, Va.
VCOM’s mission is to train primary care physicians to work in rural and underserved communities.
Hospital District trustees entered the lease with VCOM with the hope that medical school graduates and residents who train here will decide to stay and practice in Vero Beach.
