During a 2008 meeting with neighborhood residents, Martha Jefferson Hospital spokesperson Steve Bowers said that a rough credit economy could potentially make for a smoother redevelopment of the hospital’s current home.
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Martha Jefferson Hospital’s current 14-acre site, the subject of exclusive negotiations between the hospital and developers Crosland LLC, could make its way back onto the market if a contract agreement isn’t reached soon. |
“It’s better knowing you have a bad economy than riding a high economy and picking whatever partner looks good, because they’re going to have to prove themselves vis-à-vis the elephants of the day,” said Bowers at the time.
One year later, Martha Jefferson Hospital picked Charlotte, North Carolina-based Crosland LLC from among a pool of potential developers, and began a 120-day exclusive negotiation period to finalize a contract for a mixed-use redevelopment of the site. Since then, however, the 120 days have come and gone—twice over—and Bowers says that there is no contract at present.
“They’re dealing with same financial environment that everyone else on planet is when it come to developments this size,” Bowers tells C-VILLE. “While we are hoping that we would have a contract and a plan moving forward at the close of last year, they asked for some time because they’re doing a lot of deleveraging some of their financial commitments.”
Now, with the hospital’s move to Pantops expected ahead of its 2012 deadline, Bowers says Martha Jefferson could potentially end exclusive negotiations with Crosland if an agreement isn’t reached.
“What we told neighbors and what our expectations of Crosland were, was at end of first quarter of the year—really by the end of March—we’d either need to have green light, a contract in the works and a way forward,” says Bowers. “Or we’d really have to reconsider where we are.”
Steve Mauldin, president of Crosland’s mixed-use division, was not available for comment by press time. However, Joseph Barnes—director of architecture and design for Celebration Associates, part of Crosland’s development team for the project—says that developers and the hospital are still in discussion.
“We’re sort of in a little bit of a holding period right now,” says Barnes. “We’re looking towards the end of March as a milestone date.” Barnes declined to give specifics on what developers and the hospital needed to reach an agreement, but said there are “a number of issues to deal with” that “range the gamut of things.”
Bruce Odell, president of the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association, moved to the neighborhood roughly five years ago. He says the neighborhood is on “watchful waiting status” while it waits for an agreement between the hospital and developers.
“We’re open-minded. I think we’ve not been shy in expressing generally some of our interests or concerns, but we haven’t drawn any red lines at this point,” says Odell. “Because you don’t draw red lines unless you see something in front of you which suggests…something egregious.”
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