The city of Pensacola, Fla., hopes to acquire and demolish the old Baptist Hospital once its operations are transferred to a new facility, Pensacola News Journal reported July 17.
Baptist Health Care, based in Pensacola, is approaching completion on a new $636 million hospital complex. It will transfer many services from the old 51-acre campus to the freshly-built one.
The city of Pensacola is interested in converting the old hospital campus to a mixed-use development with retail, commercial and "attainable housing" spaces, according to the newspaper. It recently won $5 million toward this project as part of a state grant award; however, state grant funds cannot be used on privately owned property, so the city would need to acquire the campus before using the funds to demolish the existing buildings.
Baptist Health Care is looking into its options for the old campus, Jennifer Grove, its vice president of external relations, told the newspaper in a written statement.
"Following our move to the new Baptist Hospital campus, some team members will remain in the buildings surrounding the hospital and Towers, and interested parties continue to explore the potential for adaptive reuse of the buildings we won’t occupy," Ms. Grove said. "We are grateful for the collaboration with the city of Pensacola and the support of Sen. [Doug] Broxson and the governor as we explore every pathway to this campus becoming a transformational opportunity for our community."