Pictured above is the former Aaron’s building at 1051 Lydia Drive in the City Gate development. The building was purchased by the Memorial Health a little more than a year ago and is being sold to a local dental group.
(Journal-Tribune photo Chad Williamson)
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When Memorial Health decided to buy the former Aaron’s building in City Gate, the goal was more about protection than profit.
After owning the building for a little more than a year, the health system has entered into a contract to sell the facility at 1051 Lydia Drive to a local dentist group. At a meeting Thursday night, Memorial’s board of trustees approved the sale of the building to a company formed by dentists Kent Hawkins and Kevin Weitzel for $1,057,000.
Memorial purchased the building in July of 2017 for $1,030,000. According to Memorial CEO Chip Hubbs, making profit on the sale took a back seat to placing deed restrictions on the building.
Memorial originally agreed to purchase the property because it lacked any type of restrictions on use, being one of the first structures built in City Gate. Since the Aaron’s building was constructed, Memorial has built two facilities in the development and a Children’s Hospital operation was opened.
With the other medical operations in place, deed restrictions were created to keep future tenants of the development from offering similar services. But the Aaron’s building could have housed a business with competing service lines to those already offered by Memorial in the development.
The dental services of the new owners will not compete with anything offered by Memorial. Hubbs added that Weitzel also has an existing business relationship with the hospital, offering pediatric Medicaid dental services.
The purchase contract will include deed restrictions that prohibit the facility from ever housing a business that would compete with Memorial’s operations.
Hubbs explained that officials had originally thought the Aaron’s building might be able to serve as a location for expanded Memorial services, but renovations to make it suitable for medical operations would have been cost prohibitive.
The board of trustees also looked over the agenda for a one-day board retreat, to be held Sept. 11 at the Richwood Bank’s Marysville facility.
Aside from looking at how board and its committees conduct their business, the meeting will also focus on topics concerning the operation of the health system as a whole.
Individual members of the board and leadership team will lead discussion on such topics as finance, technology, population health, tone and tenor, and “systemness.” While tone and tenor will concern Memorial’s public voice, “systemness” will center on making operations and patient experience uniform among the systems numerous facilities.
In other business, the board:
– Heard an update on Memorial’s construction project involving new inpatient and outpatient facilities.
– Handled matters pertaining to medical staff appointments.
– Approved new thresholds for purchases that require board approval, including allowing Hubbs to approve expenditures up to $50,000. The CEO’s previous limit, put in place more than 10 years ago, had been $25,000.
– Learned that Memorial had been as a Gold Level Workplace by the American Heart Association.
– Heard an update on a recent operational audit conducted at the hospital. The third-party company conducting the survey found no major issues.