Henry Ford Health System Official Speaks About Former Riverside Hospital
Trenton-Grosse Ile Patch editor Nate Stemen asked Henry Ford Health System official Marco F. Capicchioni Patch readers' questions about the former Riverside Hospital property.
Trenton-Grosse Ile Patch editor Nate Stemen recently spoke to Marco F. Capicchioni, vice president of Facility, Real Estate and Support Services at Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), to ask three of the most popular questions asked by readers pertaining to the former Riverside Hospital property.
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The questions were gathered from comments made to several stories and posts on the Trenton-Grosse Ile Patch Facebook page.
These are the questions followed by Capicchioni's responses:
How can HFHS help improve the economic future of Downtown Trenton, in regard to the former Riverside Hospital property?
"Since closing the property in 2002 and selling it in 2009, our goal has been to see the property redeveloped in a manner that will benefit the City of Trenton and its residents. We remain committed to being a good neighbor by supporting the community through scholarships and community outreach through health and wellness events. The City of Trenton actually agreed with the deed restriction because they wanted to avoid having a non-profit take over the location. The city wanted a residential project on the site that would provide as much tax base as possible and develop foot traffic to the shops in town. In fact, Henry Ford packaged the site for sale as a high density residential."
Why did HFHS add deed restrictions when selling the property?
"Henry Ford initially added deed restrictions when selling the property in 2009 to prohibit the sale of the property to persons and/or entities that would be in direct competition of Henry Ford Health System. Since then, Henry Ford has made several attempts to accommodate Dr. (Iqbal) Nasir’s request in a modified manner. On July 18, 2012 Henry Ford representatives had a phone conference with Dr. Nasir’s legal counsel and had offered to provide Dr. Nasir with a written waiver personal to Dr. Nasir that would allow him to move forward with a 78 bed skilled nursing facility and senior housing component. To date Henry Ford has not heard back from Dr. Nasir’s attorney."
In the event that Iqbal Nasir does not build his project, for whatever reason, would HFHS tear the building down?
"Henry Ford has not owned the building since 2009. Dr. Nasir is the current owner and it is his decision on how to move forward."
Jerry Brown
10:24 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Mr. Capicchioni doesn't tell the whole story when he speaks of the City of Trenton agreeing to the deed restrictions. There were two requests of Henry Ford Health Systems when the facility closed in 2002. The first one was that Henry Ford would aggressively market the property to be sold and we used as an example of Lynn Hospital in Lincoln Park being sold to a church after it was left vacant for four years.
The second request was that it not be sold to be used as a church, which would not be the best use for this riverfront property.
The real reason that it took seven years to dispose of the property, and Mr. Capicchioni failed to mention, is the fact that it took the seven years to transfer the 144 beds from the Riverside Hospital site to other Henry Ford hospital locations and if the hospital site sold before the beds were transferred, the beds would not have been able to go to the other sites. Each bed has a certificate of need authorization through the State of Michigan and the bed amount that hospitals can have are regulated by the State very cautiously. The truth is, the hospital site was being held hostage for seven years until the beds were finally transferred to Henry Ford Wyandotte, a hospital in Oakland County and one in Macomb County. This is the real story and Henry Ford's primary goal was not to do what was best for the City of Trenton, but to transfer the beds first.
Jerry Brown
Former Trenton Mayor
sine-of-the-times
11:07 am on Friday, August 31, 2012
Thanks for posting Nate. The city needs to be TRUTHFUL with the residents who have suffered all along. It is the residents who should be of the utmost importance now. They need to STOP leading us along with all the "if-only's" and "just wait's". The officials need to stop letting these "deadlines" pass, at the expense of our safety, our property values, our right to live in a non-blighted community, and healthy, non-stressful living. I consider this problem an EMERGENCY in our community, and the council and mayor have to STEP up and talk about solutions and be ACTIVELY engaged in working on solutions, not just waiting for the next council meeting to approve another block party.