Health Care District Secures Land for New Glades Hospital
Posted on: Thursday, 15 June 2006, 18:00 CDT
By Phil Galewitz, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
Jun. 15--Health Care District of Palm Beach County commissioners on Wednesday approved a tentative deal with a nonprofit group that will allow the district to take control of 50 acres of state land to build a replacement hospital for Glades General Hospital just west of here.
The district board considered the unanimous vote one of its last actions to make the long-sought dream of a new hospital in the Glades a reality.
The $52 million hospital -- for which the district has committed to paying $40 million -- is the single largest expense since the taxpayer district was created in 1988.
"Now, we are on our way to getting what we want -- a new hospital," district Commissioner Effie Greer said at a meeting at Belle Glade City Commission chambers.
Under the tentative deal with St. Petersburg-based Pride Enterprises, the district will get the land at the southwest corner of State Road 80 and U.S. 441 in return for the district paying Pride about $3 million to $4 million during the next 30 years for various goods and supplies such as office furniture and restroom products.
Pride provides vocational rehabilitation services in the state's prisons.
The district and Pride still have to complete a contract by early August, though that is considered a formality.
The state Cabinet meets next week in Tallahassee today to approve the state land to be used for the new hospital.
That meeting was delayed two weeks to give Pride and the health care district more time to reach a deal.
Once the district takes over the land, construction of the 60-room, 70-bed hospital could take two to three years.
Glades General in Belle Glade was built in 1944.
The district has paid Pride about $45,000 during the past year for goods and services, such as copying supplies and chemical cleaners for the district's nursing home.
As part of the new tentative agreement, Pride is slated to make $750,000 in profit through the procurement contracts with the health care district through 2036.
Eighteen cents of each $1 the district contracts to pay Pride will be counted toward the $750,000.
If enough business has not been directed to Pride to net it $750,000 by 2036, the district would pay the difference.
Pride leases, for nominal rent, thousands of acres of state land that it uses to make money to support its vocational training.
The 50 acres near Belle Glade is used to raise sugar cane under a deal Pride has with U.S. Sugar Corp.
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Source: The Palm Beach Post
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