News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville City Council will consider a resolution Thursday declaring the Cumberland River Hospital property as surplus.
Cookeville Regional Medical Center (CRMC) CEO Paul Korth said the hospital will make a final push to sell the CRH facility and its assets as a whole.
“I think our first step is going to be we will package everything – the land, the building, the medical assets that are inside, everything except the working capital,” Korth said, “send that out as a request for proposal to have people bid on the whole operation. If someone wants to buy the whole operation like it is, we’re going to make one last-ditch effort to sell the operation as it is.”
The property could be divided into three lots and sold separately, as Korth said one lot features a small townhouse that once housed hospital workers from foreign countries and emergency employees.
“The second thing would be, we would take the big square [with the] hospital and say that’s one piece, the other two would be a separate bid,” Korth said, “and then we would give the option for somebody to offer 10 or 15 percent on top of the combined bids to buy them all as one piece of property.”
Korth noted that several Clay County residents attended CRMC’s special-called board meeting on March 6 asking about potential buyers interested in the facility.
“Those individuals that came to our board meeting on March 6 and expressed that they could find buyers,” Korth said. “This would say to them ‘here’s the package, go take this RFP to those people you think can buy it and give us a bid.”
Korth has previously estimated that the property, facility, and assets of the Celina hospital are valued around $2 million.
Information provided during Cookeville City Council’s work session Tuesday indicates CRMC would have over $401,000 in assets transferred back to them. Nearly $222,000 in medical equipment and other assets are expected to be sold separately from the current facility.
A public hearing regarding the ordinance will take place during Cookeville’s City Council meeting Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
