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People sure are quick to label someone who doesn't want to sell their property a "greedy holdout".  Perhaps you should consider that they may not want to sell their property for reasons other than money.  If someone's family has owned the property for many, many years, they may want to continue to live there instead of moving to a new area.  Even at the offer of 200%, in many cases around the old Brandon School area that is still very little money.  I just did a real estate search for houses in Florence for less than $50,000.00 and the choices are very limited.  Many of the homeowners are not in a position to spend more that the sale of their homes will bring.  A lot of them are not able to get big bank loans or make large payments on a house.  I would also suggest that anyone looking to sell and move investigate how much their property tax and insurance will go up.  The increase in expenses will not end with simply making a cash payment for a house, even if they find something suitable for the amount they sell their house for. 

 

If, as they said at the meeting last night,  100% participation is required, then I don't think the hospital will go in that area.  I don't think all of the owners are willing to sell, and not just because they are greedy. 

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
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From what I've been told by a very reliable source, the minimum needed is seven acres. The Brandon School property alone is 7.5 acres. They apparently have the block to the south sewn up also. The remaining four blocks are just icing on the cake.

 

After all is said and done, if a property owner doesn't sell, RC would probably up their bid. It's very interesting since it's been said RC turned their back on the Locker Farm property because the asking price was too high. Looking at the Long property, it's about as far west of Court Street as Brandon is east. The Brandon Block is on a higher elevation, perhaps befitting how RC sees itself?

If it actually required 100% participation, it would never happen.  There will always be people who don't like something, want more money, etc...  The wheels are already turning.

 

I understand the concept of some not wanting to move, but wouldn't the benefits of moving out of east Florence outweigh the PITA aspect of moving?

If you don't take 200% of the appraised value for your home, maybe you just don't want to sell it.  Maybe you like where your home is and think Regionalcare should find another spot that doesn't belong to you.  Maybe you know that 200% isn't worth it, and people who aren't property owners in the area should just mind their own business instead of resorting to name-calling at every opportunity.

As to the 100% participation, I am just going by what they said at the meeting last night.  That is what the guy from Regionalcare said.  That is all I know.  Oh, and that they have already hired the general contractor, one from Nashville, not one from Alabama.

Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:

Good luck to the one person that ensures all his neighbors don't double their money!

This is one of a few such veiled threats that have been made in the last few days over this issue.  I'm going to print both of them out for the police department to have on file.  The moderation here can undoubtedly track down your IP address and your ISP can identify your actual name and place of residence, so you'd best watch what you put in writing in the future.

 

Now, I am one of those who do not wish to sell my house.  Period.  If I'm greedy it's because I want to keep the house I've lived in for my whole life, not because I'm holding out to see if they'll pay me more.  They won't be paying me anything, ever.

 

I really do not think that was a threat from him jimminy. I think it was more of a comment on what other people might do.  Also I do not live in that neighborhood, but I live pretty close by and if they were offering me that much money I would jump at the chance to get out of there.  Lived here my whole life too.  I would think my family would much rather see me succeed financially and be taken care of than to hold onto somethin that is falling apart.  Not commenting on your house specifically obviously, as I have no idea who you are. But the entire area around there is really run down.  Especially when the thing that replaces it has a chance to really give value to the community and surrounding neighborhoods while being offered double the market value plus 10%.  You would be hard pressed to find a better deal than that, even in a great economy.

Your mom would have a good laugh at that, too.

 

The thing is, the houses here really aren't that bad off.  I've seen four new roofs go on this spring, and one of them was my house.  That cost me three thousand dollars, and now they want to come and knock it down?  A neighbor across the street had all the windows replaced, at least one house had a major renovation done. I mean roof, siding, windows, the works.   I can't imagine what that cost, and all of it will go to waste if the hospital bulldozes over it. Sure, we don't have three story McMansions with pools in the back yard, but this is not quite the ghetto some of you seem to be imagining.  And this is not the only place where people have trouble keeping their grass cut--as if that's how we should judge people, not by the content of their character but by the unruliness of the bushes in their back yard.

Yeah, just because you added to your house does not mean you will be losing out. If you add things to your house it improves your market value, and regional care is offering to give you double, plus 10 percent of that additional market value.  People buy houses all the time with the intention of fixing them up to sell them and make money.  Double is a very generous offer, and anyone looking to sell at anytime in the future would have a hard time finding someone to buy at that price.

That's not what I'm asking and you know it.  What do you mean anyway, how could someone afford not to sell?  We're not all up to our ears in debt, we're not starving or living in boxes.  I have everything I need.  More than I need, really.  The only thing I'd buy with the money they'd pay me is another house, but why would I do that when I can keep my own?

Regional Care is going to pay twice as much for the property they wish to buy.  Why do they want to buy extra property?  They will need to have land to sell to doctors for new professional building(s).  This is a good land speculation for RC.  Next point of speculation:  If RC has this much money to throw around, where did it come from and what is going to happen to your hospital bill?   The money for overpayment must come from somewhere - YOU?

My guess would be they want the extra land to build places for their workers to park and to eventually expand if they needed to. Also for the cancer treatment center they are wanting to build.  Better to buy too much and not use it all than to buy too little. Also the money is probably coming from their company.  Regional care is pretty large with multiple hospitals all over the nation.

RegionalCare is a brand new hospital chain, and they've been buying up little, dinky hospitals in cities I've never even heard of.  I don't know who the principals of the corporation are, but I would imagine they're experienced hospital managers--from other larger Nashville hospital corporations.

 

ECM is by far their largest acquisition to date.  I don't understand how they can purchase a business on all borrowed money, turn around a money losing operation AND build a major new facility (again on borrowed money.)  Just the recapitalization of the hospital's day to day working capital had to be immense--and again on all borrowed money.  AND they're not getting reimbursed at the same rate on Medicare as hospitals in Nashville, Huntsville and Birmingham.

 

RegionalCare is hung on having a river view, and 6 little blocks is not enough room for a big hospital--and the businesses that come with the hospital.  They can forget getting a bunch of poor retirees living on a subsistence level agreeing to move elsewhere.  RegionalCare needs to find a large parcel with one owner--like the farm behind Martins Dept. Store--and make'em a deal they cannot refuse. There's plenty of vacant land within a block or two of Cox Creek.

 

In case nobody told ECM, Florence is no longer downtown.  It's off Cox Creek.  Everybody moved out of town a long time ago, and the hospital needs to be where the masses of people live.

 

And while we're talking hospitals:  Helen Keller is a very small hospital trying to be everything to everybody.  The Colbert County politicians should have taken their $45 million and sold the hospital when they had the chance.  The County has no business being in the hospital business, as it's too complicated of an industry for a bunch of yokels to be in.  I'm sorry, but 100 bed hospitals are a thing of the past.

Are you serious? Downtown florence has been booming with growth recently.  Cox creek might have bix box retailers, but then again I dont recall many cities where those retailers are right in the middle of downtown areas.  The brandon location is central to the shoals as a whole, with great roadways and access. Cox creek would put it on the outskirts of the shoals and only give it really one major avenue to get there with.

Originally Posted by Mikus:

Looks like they could just knock down the hospital that is here and rebuild in the same location.  Don't they already own it? 

Except they would just have to suspend services for a year or 2 during the demo/site prep/rebuild, plus the location of ECM kinda sucks, as far as major road access, etc..  That would never happen.

Maybe they could use the old hospital building on Cloyd Blvd. again temporarily while they were under construction, and it may not be the best location, but it is right off of Dr. Hicks and Pine Street and very close to the bridge and tons of medical offices that are already occupied.  It seems to me that it would be a close second if the Brandon thing doesn't work out.  They may not get their first choice of locations if all of the homeowners aren't in agreement, and I don't think they are.

Fair enough, but ambulances cause lots of accidents regardless of the skill of the driver.  People trying to slow down and stop for them will get rear ended, or cars will fail to see them and swerve out into other traffic.  That's a really busy intersection that the curve comes up to, and people speed through it and across the bridge all the time.  Plus, the curve on Ironside street right in front of Brandon is murder.  Are they going to pave over it and fix it, or are ambulances going to have to make that turn to get to the hospital?  It's bad enough in a car.

Originally Posted by Jimminy Crickets:
Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:

Good luck to the one person that ensures all his neighbors don't double their money!

This is one of a few such veiled threats that have been made in the last few days over this issue.  I'm going to print both of them out for the police department to have on file.  The moderation here can undoubtedly track down your IP address and your ISP can identify your actual name and place of residence, so you'd best watch what you put in writing in the future.

 

Now, I am one of those who do not wish to sell my house.  Period.  If I'm greedy it's because I want to keep the house I've lived in for my whole life, not because I'm holding out to see if they'll pay me more.  They won't be paying me anything, ever.

 

___

 

I am sure the Police Department will be thrilled to get your paranoid communication concerning alleged "veiled threats."  Get this, Jiminy--mere speculation is not a threat, veiled or otherwise.

They actually said that they would be closing off roads, so the curve wouldn't necessarily even be there anymore.  The front of the hospital would face the bridge, so probably it would just be entrances to a parking lot, and the out-patient entrance would be around at the back of the building.  I don't recall if he said which side the entrance to the E.R. would be on.  I understand that there are several property owners who do not intend to sell, though.

Originally Posted by Mikus:

They actually said that they would be closing off roads, so the curve wouldn't necessarily even be there anymore.  The front of the hospital would face the bridge, so probably it would just be entrances to a parking lot, and the out-patient entrance would be around at the back of the building.  I don't recall if he said which side the entrance to the E.R. would be on.  I understand that there are several property owners who do not intend to sell, though.

They can/will probably use eminent domain, as it will serve the public good for the hospital to be there.  Most of the occupants of the affected houses are renters.  I doubt many, if any landlords would object, as they really be cashing in on their investment. 

 

In the case of actual owner-occupants, I would guess that if a house has been 'in the family' for so long..that the house would be paid off by now, unless they took out a HELOC or something..  If paid off, why NOT take the money and upgrade to another neighborhood?  How can that part of East Florence in its current state (not the hospital scenario) be more appealing than other parts of the city?  The argument that you can't get a house for double the value of even the cheaper homes in that area just doesn't fly.

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