Hospital properties to go on sale

North Bay General Hospital
News Release

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The buildings that belong to the North Bay General Hospital are going up for sale as early as next week. The public learned more about the process at a public meeting in North Bay last night, attended by about 150 residents.

The properties being discussed include: the McLaren site (former St Joseph's Hospital), the Scollard site (former Civic Hospital), the Cooper House, and the Nipissing Building.

The Executive Director of the North Bay Regional Health Centre Project and NBGH Senior VP, Glenn Scanlan, explained that For Sale signs will not be placed on the properties but ads will go in newspapers instead, either at the end of this week or early next week. He says the properties must be put up for sale now because investors start to shop around during the summer and make offers in the fall. Scanlan says he has no idea of the kind of interest in the properties, but so far five different groups have asked for information.

"Timing is an issue here," explained Scanlan. "The NBGH gets three months carrying costs (from the Province) to manage the empty buildings, and that's it. So we need to put them up for sale as we have no money to further care for the buildings. We're in the business of health care, not real estate." The move to the new facility is scheduled for the end of January, 2011, which means the fate of the old buildings must be determined by early next spring.

Scanlan pointed out the Hospital Board alone does not make a decision about who buys the property and for what purpose. The North East LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) must know about any proposals and must declare there is no use for the buildings from a health care provision perspective before they are turned over for other purposes. The Ministry of Health and Long term Care must give final approval to any sale.

An assessment of the state of the buildings has been completed to identify the components that would be important to anyone with an interest in purchasing the properties. That assessment is part of a larger package of information that will be made available to interested developers.

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