Photo by Jon Anderson
This former office building for Regions Bank now is being proposed for redevelopment as the Riverwalk Village Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama.
The Hoover Health Care Authority is very close to identifying an operator for the outpatient surgery center planned in the Riverwalk Village development in Riverchase, authority Chairman Alan Paquette told the Hoover City Council this week.
After the authority received a “certificate of need” to move forward with an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center from the state’s Certificate of Need Review Board in September of last year, the Health Care Authority solicited proposals from potential operators.
That request did not yield the results the authority was seeking, so there was a delay, Paquette told the City Council on Monday.
The Health Care Authority began collaborating with CR Endeavors, the developer that owns the building where the surgery center is planned, and on Monday interviewed two potential operators, both of which were “absolutely outstanding,” Paquette said.
The authority members had planned to choose an operator Monday, he said. However, a third potential operator came forward and requested an audience with the Health Care Authority as well, so a vote was delayed to give authority members time to meet with that entity, he said.
He was anticipating that meeting would take place this week and that the authority would pick an operator in plenty of time to inform the Certificate of Need Review Board of its selection, he said.
The Certificate of Need Review Board gave the authority until Nov. 3 to submit paperwork identifying the operator, and Paquette said he anticipates no problem with that deadline.
The authority also has been working with CR Endeavors to “clean up” some clunky and clumsy wording in the lease agreement between the authority and the city of Hoover, Paquette said. A draft of that revised lease has been submitted and is being reviewed, he said.
