In the midst of a tense legal standoff between two health care systems over a lease dispute, Golisano Children’s Health Center in North Naples — which serves thousands of Collier County families each year — will avoid an April 4 eviction from its location at the corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads.

The legal wrangling, however, is likely to continue.

Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital System, holder of the master lease on the space at 3361 Pine Ridge Road that houses the clinic, had threatened to evict Fort Myers-based Lee Health System, Inc., which runs the pediatric health center, prior to the end of its current lease that runs through September 2026.

But Lee Health, which has operated the clinic for more than eight years, filed a lawsuit in Collier County March 24 against Nicklaus Children’s and the landlord, Pine Ridge Livingston LLC, seeking an injunction to stop the eviction and to allow Lee Health to exercise an option in the lease for two five-year extensions.

The Lee Health System includes the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers, a 300,000-square- foot, seven-story facility that opened in 2017, which the system said was made possible by a “groundbreaking” gift from philanthropist Tom Golisano.

Lee Health said in its lawsuit that it believed Nicklaus Children’s was attempting to end the lease for the Golisano Children’s Health Center in Naples because of Lee Health’s conversion from a public to a private nonprofit system last fall. Nicklaus Children’s said it had informed Lee Health last fall that it was seeking to end the lease in order to utilize the space itself.

The complaint by Lee Health said that the eviction would “…[ jeopardize] the health of thousands of children who could be left without vital services — often life-saving services.”

Nicklaus Children’s withdraws lease termination

Prior to a decision by the court, on Friday, March 28, Nicklaus Children’s sent a letter to Lee Health President and CEO Larry Antonucci, M.D., saying it was withdrawing the notice of termination of the lease and asking Lee Health to confirm dismissal of its lawsuit.

“We are writing in the hopes that we may help to refocus the business relationship between Nicklaus Children’s and Golisano [Children’s Hospital] on what matters most — our shared vision to ensure the children of Collier County, Florida receive the best care and services that may be provided,” Nicklaus Children’s SVP and General Counsel Jodi Laurence said in the letter. “We are afraid that vision has been blurred by the legal exchanges, which culminated in the lawsuit recently filed by Golisano [Children’s Hospital] against Nicklaus Children’s without any warning.”

Laurence’s letter said that Nicklaus Children’s had advised Lee Health in October 2024 that it would “not agree to assignment” of the lease.

“After almost six months of waiting for your transition plans and timeline, we had no choice but to start our own transition,” the letter said. “Even in the letter sent by our counsel on March 5, 2025, we stressed our goal was to ‘permit … a smooth transition to new premises.’

“At this time, we don’t want to revisit the history of our dispute,” the letter continued, “and would prefer to focus on the future. We suggest putting the legal back-andforth aside and remain focused on our collective vision. To that end, and without prejudice to, or waiver of, Nicklaus Children’s rights under the Sublease, we formally withdraw our March 5, 2025 Notice of Termination of Sublease.

“We look forward to confirmation of your dismissal of the lawsuit and wish you much success as you plan Golisano’s [Children’s Health Center’s] next phase,” the letter concluded. “We are hopeful we can all get back to our committed purpose, namely, the health and welfare of Collier County’s children.”

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital did not respond by press time to questions about whether the current Lee Health lease will remain in effect through September 2026, and if the lease would expire at that time so that Nicklaus Children’s can use the Pine Ridge Road space.

Lee Health says lawsuit remains active

In an initial statement sent to local media on March 29, Lee Health did not specify that it had dropped, or planned to drop, its lawsuit, but on March 31 said in response to questions that the lawsuit “is likely to remain active.”

“Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s action on Friday provided short-term reprieve, not a resolution,” the March 31 Lee Health statement said. “Lee Health remains committed to collaborating on a long-term solution that honors Lee Health’s decade-long dedication to caring for the children of Collier County.

“The lawsuit is likely to remain active until these broader concerns are addressed. Outreach is occurring and we look forward to discussing how to best deliver uninterrupted care for the children of Collier County.”

The March 29 statement from Lee Health said the system “is pleased that the immediate threat to Collier County families’ access to health care has been addressed with a pause to the April 4 eviction of services at the Golisano Children’s Health Center in Naples, ensuring access to essential pediatric care for our Collier County children.

“This decision ensures that thousands of families can continue to receive the specialized care they depend on, without immediate interruption.”

Lee Health said in its March 29 statement that while this “reprieve” allows Lee Health to “continue our mission in the short term, we remain deeply concerned about the potential for future disruptions that could put our patients at risk. Lee Health has spent nearly a decade building and expanding access to high-quality pediatric services in this facility. With the help of generous donors, Lee Health has invested millions of dollars to create a space that meets the needs of our Collier County families.”

Lee Health said it is “focused on ensuring a long-term solution that protects the continuity of care” for patients and their families.

“We are committed to working with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital to find a collaborative path forward that ensures Golisano Children’s Health Center in Naples will remain a cornerstone of pediatric health and wellness offering Lee Health’s critical services in Collier County for generations to come.

“Lee Health is unwavering in its mission to safeguard the trusted care that families have come to rely on. We will continue advocating for a resolution that prioritizes the well-being of the children we serve and preserves the vital services provided by our dedicated care teams,” the March 29 statement concluded.

Golisano Children’s Health Center in Naples provides treatment in 20 pediatric specialties, according to Lee Health, including cardiology, oncology, neurology and pulmonology, as well as services for children with autism, rehabilitation therapies and an urgent care clinic that the system said served more than 20,000 pediatric patients in 2024. The clinic saw 65,000 visits overall in 2023.

Nicklaus Children’s was the original lease holder on the space when the two health systems started a collaboration in 2017. That arrangement ended in 2019 and Lee Health has since paid the entire lease — currently just under $115,000 per month — on the 29,600-square-foot space.

After filing the lawsuit in late March, Lee Health said it had paid the April 2025 rent “into the registry of the court.”

Nicklaus Children’s has another connection in Collier County, through its collaboration with Naples Comprehensive Health since 2022 in providing inpatient services for the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units at the NCH North Naples Hospital campus.