The long-shuttered hospital building in Patrick County has been put up for auction, and a top executive with the Chicago-based company that had planned to reopen the facility confirmed Thursday that it is no longer pursuing the project.
Foresight Health purchased the property in Stuart for $2.1 million in 2022 with promises to reopen it as a critical access hospital. The 63,000-square-foot facility has stood vacant since 2017, when the Mississippi-based Pioneer Health Services declared bankruptcy.
Although Foresight made some interior improvements to the building, the years under its ownership were largely marked by inactivity. Foresight sold the property in March to an Illinois limited liability company, Wolf of Wabash, for $1.6 million with plans to lease it back, make improvements and open an outpatient behavioral health center.
“That plan is no longer viable. Consequently, this project is no longer moving forward,” Joe Hylak-Reinholtz, chief operating officer of Foresight Health, said by email Thursday.
Several months after the transfer of the property, the CEO of Foresight Health, Sameer Suhail, was charged with six counts of wire fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting embezzlement and two counts of money laundering in a case unrelated to the Patrick County project.
Phil Joseph, a representative of Wolf of Wabash, said his company is now looking to sell the property.
“We’re looking for a way to exit that helps the community,” Joseph said. “I don’t have a background in health care. I hope someone can come in and do something more productive.”
The property is listed on FRE.com, a commercial real estate site, and valued at $3.6 million, with bidding starting at $599,000. No bids had been placed as of Friday afternoon. Bidding will close Oct. 3.
The hospital was built in 1962, and it’s likely that there’s asbestos in the building, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report attached to the property listing. The report included a record of a permit issued to Pioneer in 2014 for asbestos abatement activities; a representative from Foresight reported that both asbestos and lead-based paint had been found on the property. Mold is likely present due to significant water damage, according to the EPA report.
No hazardous substances or contamination were identified on the property, the EPA assessment said.
Joseph, who said he visited the site earlier this year, said the property is still in good condition and does not need to be torn down.
County Administrator Beth Simms said Thursday that she thinks the property could be used in the future. She didn’t respond to additional questions about the site.
The service line that Patrick County residents have asked for most is emergency room care, Foresight had said. But, a 2020 report by a local advisory board created by the West Piedmont Health District determined that renovating the existing hospital would be prohibitively expensive. Additionally, a feasibility study concluded that a traditional hospital model would not be sustainable in the rural area.
Earlier this year, Foresight Health said that it would not be able to move forward with the project unless additional funds became available.
Hylak-Reinholtz said in January that emergency room care would be extremely costly in the rural community.
“On average, emergency departments generate insufficient revenue from their billings to cover the costs. In a small rural hospital with significant overhead costs, it becomes almost impossible to make it profitable,” he said in a news release.
At the time, relations between the company and Patrick County leaders had deteriorated. In March, Foresight offered to “donate” the property to Patrick County if the county agreed to pay half of the expenses Foresight said it had incurred while working on the project.
A spreadsheet compiled by the company and obtained by Cardinal News listed $1.63 million worth of expenses, but not all charges were related directly to the hospital. The list included more than $457,000 for private jet travel and lodging at a luxury resort and $22,000 in payments made to the county’s economic development director at the time.
Simultaneously, the company owed more than $30,000 in unpaid taxes and late fees to the county.