Tony London
The sale of the former location of the nursing division of the Bartholomew County Health Department is expected to be finalized today.
The county-owned building at 2675 Foxpointe Drive was scheduled to be purchased Monday afternoon by Forman Investors of Columbus for $625,000, county commissioner Tony London said. After the proceeds from the sale are obtained, the money will be placed in the county’s general fund, the commissioner said.
The county did get multiple appraisals to find the value of the business before Russell Development placed the building on the market, county Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
It was shortly before the old State Street school, which later became the Bartholomew County Annex building, was torn down in 2015 that two suites in the Foxpointe Drive building became the home of the nursing division. The building that once housed the medical offices of Dr. Daria Schooler was purchased by Columbus Regional Health.
Under an agreement approved in the late spring of 2015, the county agreed to pay $60,000 to CRH to rent the two suites for 18 months.
Headed by Amanda Organist, nursing is one of two divisions of the county health department. The environmental and vital records division, headed by Linc Fulp, is located on the third floor of the Bartholomew County Governmental Office building at Third and Franklin streets.
In September 2016, the county agreed to purchase the Foxpointe Drive property partially through a land swap. The deal called for the county to give CRH the land where the county annex once stood, as well as two parcels of land adjacent to hospital facilities.
The county also paid CRH about $450,000, and later invested more money to upgrade the facility, county auditor Pia O’Connor said.
As the building’s owner, the county was able to rent out two suites to medical tenants such as Estes Neuropsychology and Select Physical Therapy. But that led to some people criticizing the commissioners for what they perceived as competing with the private sector.
For five years, all three commissioners frequently expressed their desire to get out of the landlord business.
In June, 2021, the county purchased the medical complex at 2625 Foxpointe Drive for $725,000. The new location provides the nursing division with 5,100 square feet of space – nearly three times more than their first Foxpointe location – as well as private access, commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
For a number of months, the nursing division used both facilities as health officials battled COVID-19. But during a recent meeting, all three commissioners agreed to place the former Foxpointe location on the market and return it to the private sector.
