Project at former hospital on hold

A city official says Heritage Healthcare of America hopes to continue renovations at Seminole Hospital & Women's Center soon.

By WILMA NORTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 6, 2000

SEMINOLE -- Renovation work has stopped on the former Seminole Hospital & Women's Center because of financial problems at a company that plans to turn the building into a residential facility for Alzheimer's patients.

The non-profit Heritage Healthcare of America has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and almost two years working on the former hospital, which closed in 1996. A month ago, the company's president projected a mid-May opening for the 76-bed facility.

But construction stopped there about a week ago.

City Building Director Bill Vola said company representatives told him Heritage Healthcare was undergoing a financial restructuring and hoped to get the renovations rolling again in a couple of months.

The large, vacant site has long been a concern for Seminole officials, who were happy to see the redevelopment get under way.

Jerold Goldstein, Heritage president, was away from his California office Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

Heritage has had numerous financial setbacks in recent weeks.

The company spent more than $9-million renovating the former Doctors Hospital of Sarasota into a 150-bed Alzheimer's facility. In January, after only six months of operation, it closed with just 35 residents.

Heritage will close a Fort Worth, Texas, Alzheimer's home April 16 after a series of financial and regulatory problems. That home opened in June 1998.

Heritage has five other Texas facilities, two of which are under construction.

In Seminole, the company planned to spend about $2.5-million on the 62,000-square-foot building at 9675 Seminole Blvd.

It is designed with private and semiprivate rooms, primarily for Alzheimer's patients, and with office space that was to be rented to health care professionals.

The company spent 18 months coming up with a flood-proofing design for the building, which sits below the flood plain.

A flood wall made of PVC panels normally installed as sea walls is planned around the building's perimeter, at a cost of about $50,000.

The company originally hoped to open the center in the fall of 1999 but was delayed, partly because of the design changes.

-- Information from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was used in this report.

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