Martha Jefferson Hospital (MJH)’s Locust Avenue campus has been sold to Octagon Partners, which will manage the redevelopment of the site after the hospital moves to its new location on Pantops in August of 2011.
While the hospital has been looking for a developer for its downtown campus for years, Octagon Partners, which bought the property for $6.5 million, submitted a proposal in April and won against other bidders.
“They are already here, they know the expectations of neighborhood, they know the expectations of City Hall and those were some of the ingredients that went into pursuing the opportunity with Octagon,” says Ron Cottrell, MJH vice president of planning.
“It is very exciting because now we have direction on what’s going to happen with someone making a substantial investment in the hospital and therefore a substantial investment in the community.”
Ellen Wagner, president of the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association, told C-VILLE that both the hospital and the new owners have done a good job of keeping the neighbors apprised on the developments of the deal.
“We definitely think that the sale to Octagon Partners is a great match,” she says via e-mail. “They have done some terrific adaptive re-use projects and I think that the main hospital site will be in good hands.”
In addition, Wagner says the neighborhood hopes that “Octagon can take advantage of the federal and state preservation tax credits that are available for the rehab of historic contributing structures.”
“Our firm focuses on adaptive reuse developments, so the MJH is a natural fit,” J. P. Williamson of Octagon Partners tells C-VILLE via e-mail. And while it is early to envision the future of the site, Williamson says there are “no definite plans at this point, but our focus is primarily on commercial tenants, versus residential.”
MJH will completely vacate the site by January 1, 2012. Plans call for the new facility on Pantops to open next August.
Cottrell says that for the hospital to “decommission” the building and turn it over to Octagon, it may take a couple of months. “I am thinking it’s going to be sometime in late fall of 2011 that Martha Jefferson will have fully decommissioned the building, and that Octagon will then come take over.”
Octagon recently completed the Gleason project just south of Downtown. Previous projects include the redevelopment of the Hardware Store building on the Mall.