BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The unfinished, massive Digital Hospital just south of Birmingham might get a life of caring for patients after all. Birmingham-based real estate firm Daniel Corp. recently agreed to pay $43.5 million for the 1 million square foot, 13-story hospital and its 103-acre site from Birmingham-based HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS). The health system halted construction on the facility back in 2003 when it was involved in a multi-billion dollar accounting fraud scandal. HealthSouth had already spent $200 million on Digital, which was being billed as the country’s first paperless hospital. Now, officials with HealthSouth and Daniel Corp. are working together to pitch space in the vacant hospital to federal military officials. The idea is to convert the facility into a National Military Recovery Center that would care for injured military veterans. Daniel Corp. reportedly has plans to build a hotel and corporate offices on the site but has no use for the hospital structure itself. HealthSouth is reportedly interested in leasing back 145,000 square feet of the facility for its corporate headquarters. At one point in 2007, HealthSouth was in negotiations to sell the campus for $56 million to Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. That deal, however, fell through. TheDigitalHospital was originally planned to accommodate 215 beds but observers believe it could accommodate twice as many. The sale is expected to close this quarter, with HealthSouth retaining a 40 percent stake in the hospital facility.
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