Building swap brings benefits

Approved contracts mean a new home for the health department and more land for Morton Plant North Bay Hospital are on the way.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 10, 2003

DADE CITY -- The Pasco County Commission approved a building shuffle Wednesday afternoon that has something for everyone:

The Pasco County Health Department will get a more modern facility in downtown New Port Richey, in the soon-to-be vacant, three-story building that houses All Children's Hospital.

Morton Plant North Bay Hospital will pick up a neighboring 1-acre lot it has long tried to acquire.

And the county will get rid of its 1950s health department building on Forest Avenue for a better price than it ever hoped, said Michael Nurrenbrock, director of the county's Office of Management and Budget.

"You can see why staff is very pleased with this," Nurrenbrock told the commission Wednesday at the historic courthouse in Dade City.

Under the contracts approved by the commission, the county will sell its old health department building at 6701 Forest Ave. to Morton Plant North Bay Hospital for $450,000. The money from that sale will help the county buy the All Children's Hospital building in New Port Richey for $900,000.

The county will use $139,500 in state housing dollars, plus other money from the county's capital improvement funds, to pay the balance.

The Pasco County Health Department would move into the ground floor of the refurbished All Children's Hospital building. The second floor would go to the county's Community Development Division, which currently rents an office on Ridge Road.

Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, which has been trying for 15 years to acquire the county property on Forest Avenue, would demolish the old health department building and use the land for something else, County Attorney Bob Sumner said.

The $450,000 price for that property is an improvement over previous appraisals that placed the property's value at $210,000 in 1993 and $250,000 in 1999, Nurrenbrock added.

And the sales price for the All Children's Hospital building could drop, if an appraiser sets the building's value below $900,000, Sumner said.

On the remote chance that the sale falls apart, Sumner said the health department won't be left without a home. The county can cancel its sale of the old building to Morton Plant North Bay Hospital if the purchase of the new building falls through, he said.

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