Tallahassee insiders have shared that Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves’ effort to get the state to help bailout Baptist Hospital by putting up $18 million to demolish its old hospital may be a heavier lift than locals realize.
Despite Baptist walking away from its guarantee to provide medical services in its old neighborhood, the mayor has tried to work out a deal that would ensure the site on E Street would have a positive impact for west Pensacola.
Basic deal: Reeves gets $18 million and Baptist hands over the land to the city and gets to take the liability off its books.
I was told that it’s a difficult sale in Tallahassee to convince lawmakers and the governor to fork over $18 million to tear down an old hospital for an organization has a $650 million new campus.
The pluses are Sen. Doug Broxson and Rep. Alex Andrade have chairmanships that can help, but can they get $18 million? Maybe.
Mayor Reeves and city officials need to come up a compelling vision for the property – which they can do.
Meanwhile, will Baptist help the city and its old neighborhood as part of any deal? Hint: Serving waffles won’t cut it.
The basic premise of demolition everyone (the city, the state and Baptist) is operating under is greatly flawed!
Why spend $18M to tear down 600k S.F. of useable structure instead of adaptively reuse the structure into a mixed-use project that would cost $35M to renovate.
You can’t rebuild that for less than $200M, it is usable as an adaptive RE-use project that solves affordable housing and economic development objectives of the city, state and the community!
Use the $$18M to build out workforce housing, affordable apartments and retail services. Why tear down 600,000 S.F. of grandfathered assets and then only be able to build back 60,000 S.F. of housing under the current City comprehensive development plan.
I would imagine Baptist requires a lot of shredding, may well need even more in the near future.
Turn it into living quarters for our disabled American veterans who have no place to live.
Though for unrelated matters, I’ve had the privilege of meeting privately with senior Baptist leadership several times in the past few years, and I am fully convinced they are smart and terrific leaders with a tremendous vision for the future of quality healthcare in Northwest Florida. Perhaps more important, I know Baptist senior leadership to be good, caring people who are deeply devoted, professionally and personally, to serving our community. If you knew me, you’d know it is nearly impossible to win such praise from me. The 18 Million dollar package is not only well deserved, it is fully necessary to ensure Baptist is able to pursue their goal of providing the type of Healthcare our community desperately needs, may well need even more in near future. Baptist’s fiscal heath is vital to not only maintaining our Northwest Florida communities, but also our growth and greater area tax base. We would hamstring our own well being and future by doing anything that would hinder a hospital which has demonstrated such a deep and broad commitment to us.