UAB Medical West to relocate hospital to McCalla, not Hoover

UAB Medical West hospital has decided to relocate to McCalla instead of land near the Trace Crossings community in Hoover, the hospital’s CEO said today.

“In order to properly serve the residents of west Jefferson County, we need to build a modern hospital to replace current MedWest inpatient offerings, as well as repurpose the current MedWest facility to support the care of the people of Jefferson County,” Medical West CEO Keith Pennington said in a press release.

“UAB MedWest is excited to announce our decision to follow our original strategy and move forward with plans to build a new hospital at Exit 1 off of 459 in McCalla – the location on which we were originally planning to build and purchased land prior to Hoover approaching us,” Pennington said. “While we were open to considering another site, we weighed many factors and have ultimately decided that McCalla is the best location for MedWest to continue to serve Jefferson County.”

After learning Medical West was planning to relocate, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato initiated talks with the hospital about moving to Hoover instead and had proposed spending $20 million in incentives to help make the deal happen.

However, some Hoover City Council members expressed opposition to the idea, saying the city should not spend that much money to bring a nonprofit hospital to Hoover, especially when some Trace Crossings residents objected to having a hospital so close to their homes.

Efforts to reach Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato for comment this afternoon were unsuccessful.

But a statement issued on behalf of the city by Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said that, from the moment city officials learned of Medical West’s intent to relocate outside of Bessemer, they felt a duty to engage in conversations that might result in a hospital being built inside the Hoover city limits.

“We are comfortable that UAB Medical West has made the decision they feel is indicated for the long-term viability of their health care network,” the city’s statement said.

Hoover is proud to be home to the highly successful UAB Medical West freestanding emergency department in The Crossings of Hoover development off John Hawkins Parkway and Interstate 459, the city’s statement said. City officials also are looking forward to cutting the ribbon on a 39,000-square-foot medical office building that UAB is constructing in the new Stadium Trace Village shopping center being built at the entrance to Trace Crossings, the statement said.

“As we move forward with the adoption and implementation of Hoover’s first true comprehensive plan, there will be many other opportunities for diversification of our economy and enhancement of our excellent quality of life,” the statement said.

Hoover Councilman John Lyda today said some council members supported the idea of paying incentives to lure UAB Medical West to Hoover, but there was not enough support to bring the issue to a vote.

“I was definitely against the $20 million figure,” Lyda said. “I don’t think that would be a wise use of taxpayer funds.”

Lyda noted that Brocato earlier this year successfully promoted tax increases under the premise that the city was headed for financial difficulties if those increases were not approved. Brocato asked for tax increases that would have raised a projected $22 million in revenue per year, but the council only passed tax increases to generate a projected $11.2 million.

The idea was that the city was running out of money, so approving $20 million in incentives to lure a nonprofit hospital to the city would send the wrong message to residents, Lyda said.

Lyda said he also opposed the proposed hospital relocation because residents of Trace Crossings made it clear they didn’t want the hospital next to their neighborhoods.

During a public involvement meeting held Sunday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, residents voiced concerns about increased traffic and fears that a hospital would decrease property values for adjacent neighborhoods.

Hoover Councilman Mike Shaw shared a statement on Facebook today, saying he opposed the hospital plan as presented for several reasons.

First, the city owes the people of Trace Crossings (and all Hoover residents with students in the three schools in Trace Crossings) a well-documented traffic plan with implementation under way, Shaw said.

“I don’t believe it’s enough to say an additional road is coming, or that we’re studying the situation,” Shaw said. “We need a plan in place, and there should be a groundbreaking on that plan before we move forward with any rezoning of the agricultural land in question.”

Second, while Medical West would be a fine corporate resident, and while a hospital in concept would be a great amenity for Hoover, the negatives associated with city financing of incentives outweighed the positives, Shaw said.

The fact that Medical West is a nonprofit entity means that state, county and city tax rebate incentives are unavailable, he said. Plus, because the hospital is relocating within Jefferson County, getting the county or state to participate in an incentive package is unlikely, he said.

Finally, the $20 million price tag is “way out of proportion” to other similar and larger economic development projects around the state, Shaw said.Birmingham is getting a technology park and incubator with 1,200 possible jobs and 24 acres for a museum for $4.5 million in incentives, while Huntsville is paying only $4.6 million in infrastructure improvements for a Facebook data center, Shaw said. Mobile’s cash outlay for Airbus was $18 million, he said.

“We need to be implementing a traffic and infrastructure plan for that area and neighborhood. We need slam-dunk economic development plans with state and local participation that we can all get behind,” Shaw said. “We need to regroup and start fresh.”

Hoover Councilman Curt Posey said he, too, believed $20 million was too much in incentives for this project. However, he would have liked to have the opportunity to continue to negotiate with UAB and perhaps reach a lesser amount of incentives or perhaps even a different location in the city.

Instead, a council member engaged in so much negative rhetoric about the proposal that UAB backed away from the table, Posey said.

“We lost all negotiating power with a multi-million dollar project,” Posey said. “It’s unfortunate, and I hope we learn something from it and don’t proceed again like this. You don’t get these opportunities a lot. If you squander them, then you’re not going to get them anymore.”

This article was updated several times with comments from additional council members.