Columbus Regional Health’s real estate portfolio is updating. Here is a roundup of what the hospital system is purchasing, what it’s selling and what some of the properties may evolve into in the future.
Former Republic building downtown
The former Republic building, 333 Second St., was purchased by the hospital system and has been vacant since December 2016. Hospital officials initially planned on moving some business and support functions to the building as they centralized back-of-house services on the 17th Street campus, said Jim Bickel, president and CEO of Columbus Regional Health.
The hospital system paid $2,770,000 for the property, which has 23,000 square feet on the building’s main floor, on 2.18 acres.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“As we talked to the community about the downtown’s future, it was clear there might be a higher calling for the building,” Bickel said.
The hospital system and a new buyer have a verbal agreement on the building’s sale. A purchase agreement is in development for the former newspaper building, although the buyer has asked hospital officials not to disclose details while the sale is pending, Bickel said. The deal is expected to be announced in late spring or early summer, Bickel said.
Former Clarion Hotel and Conference Center
Columbus Regional Health purchased the 20.72-acre former Clarion hotel at 2480 W. Jonathan Moore Pike for $4.25 million in July 2017. Demolition has been ongoing at the property, with about 90 percent of that completed. Development of whatever will be offered on the site will commence within the next few years, Bickel said. It will take most of 2018 to get the site shovel-ready and to begin improving the traffic flow around the property. Once construction at the site is launched, that could last from 18 months to two years. There is a long list of possibilities for development at the site, from stand-alone emergency services, to physician offices, an immediate care facility or other options. It would be the hospital systems’ first major expansion to the growing west side of Columbus.
Goeller Road medical office building
The hospital system purchased a 1.7-acre property that includes the Tipton Lakes Health Center at 4001 Goeller Blvd. for $3.3 million on Nov. 1. The center is just north of a 1.5-acre vacant lot the system owns at Goeller Boulevard and Tupelo Drive. The medical office building is a short-term project for the hospital system, with hospital officials saying it can be updated and available for medical office space for physicians to move in within the year.
