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Photo by Jon Anderson
Loree Skelton speaks at a ribbon cutting and reopening celebration for the Hoover Senior Center on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, after a two-month closure for renovations to the entrance and lobby in November and December 2023.
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This former office building for Regions Bank now is being proposed for redevelopment as the Riverwalk Village Health and Wellness Center in Hoover, Alabama.
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Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, second from left, testifies during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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Alan Paquette, chairman of the Hoover Health Care Authority, is sworn in to give testimony during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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Cason Kirby, an attorney for the Hoover Health Care Authority, gives an opening statement during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato testifies during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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David Belser, an attorney for the Forest Park Group, gives an opening statement during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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Alan Paquette, chairman of the Hoover Health Care Authority, testifies during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
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Colin Luke, an attorney for the Hoover Health Care Authority, asks questions during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
The sister of former Hoover Mayor Brian Skelton is the person contesting the Hoover Health Care Authority’s efforts to get state approval for an ambulatory surgery and medical diagnostics facility in Riverchase, testimony before an administrative law judge revealed Tuesday.
And current Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato testified that he felt a lobbyist for the developer of Stadium Trace Village was trying to blackmail him into supporting a financial incentive package for Stadium Trace Village to keep from having the Riverchase project contested.
A company called Healthcare Resources has purchased the 91-acre Regions Bank campus in Riverchase and wants to convert one of two office towers on the property into a Riverwalk Village mixed-use center anchored by an ambulatory surgery center with diagnostic and imaging services and other physician and medical offices.
The Hoover Health Care Authority is asking the State Health Planning and Development Agency for a “certificate of need” that indicates such a facility is merited in that location.
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.
But Loree Skelton, the sister of the late Hoover Mayor Brian Skelton and a licensed health care attorney who is CEO of the South Haven Nursing Home in Hoover, turned out to be the person behind a corporate entity — Forest Park Group — that is contesting the certificate of need.
Her contest led the state to set up a public hearing with an administrative law judge, who will hear the evidence and make a recommendation to the state Certificate of Need Review Board.
Loree Skelton also has been working with the developer of Stadium Trace Village across town on plans for a 25-bed surgery center in a proposed phase two of that development, one of her attorneys said in Tuesday’s public hearing.
Alan Paquette, chairman of the Hoover Health Care Authority, testified Tuesday that the authority initially was looking for a partner to help bring a boutique hospital to Hoover. Initially, the authority looked at the vacant Sears building at the Riverchase Galleria as a potential location, but that option didn’t work out, Paquette said.
The authority then held talks with two developers about possibilities, he said. One was William Kadish of the Broad Metro development group, who was eyeing a vacant piece of property known as Hidden Valley between Interstate 459 and John Hawkins Parkway. The other was Robert Simon of Corporate Realty, who was proposing the Regions Bank site in Riverchase.
Paquette said he believed the Riverchase site to be superior because it has an existing building with roads and other infastructure already in place to support it and convenient access to multiple main roads such as Valleydale Road, Interstate 65, Riverchase Parkway East and U.S. 31.
Also, repurposing an empty office building and tying it into a mixed-use development that includes commercial space, a hotel and roughly 600 single-family and multi-family home sites would help revitalize the Riverchase community, Paquette said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Alan Paquette, chairman of the Hoover Health Care Authority, is sworn in to give testimony during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Furthermore, at that time, Kadish was still talking about a hospital, and the authority had gained more interest in the idea of a surgery and diagnostic center, he said.
Later, Kadish included a 25-bed surgery center in his proposal for a second phase of Stadium Trace Village. David Belser, an attorney for Skelton, said she has been involved with Stadium Trace Village on that project.
Cason Kirby, one of the attorneys for the Hoover Health Care Authority, said in his opening comments in Tuesday’s hearing that the reason Skelton is contesting the certificate of need for the authority is because she and Kadish were not selected by the authority for their desired project across town.
“The Forest Park Group is not a public entity like the Hoover Health Care Authority,” Kirby said. “It is a purposely opaque company with no history and dubious future.”
Furthermore, “the developer [Kadish] has threatened Hoover city officials and through a hired lobbyist threatened to interfere with this very certificate of need procedure,” Kirby said.
The mayor testified that Pat Lynch, a lobbyist for Broad Metro, in March asked him if he would support Broad Metro’s development incentive package if Broad Metro could make opposition to the Riverwalk development go away.
“I was really kind of shocked he asked me that question because he’s my friend,” Brocato said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that. That sounds a little bit like blackmail.’”
The mayor said he told Lynch he didn’t believe Kadish could stop the city’s effort to get a certificate of need and Lynch told him Kadish has connections and could get it stopped.
In an affidavit, Lynch said that at no time has Broad Metro or any of its owners or representatives sought to intimidate, extort or blackmail the city of Hoover or any member of the Hoover City Council. In the same affidavit, Lynch wrote that he asked Brocato in that March phone conversation if Broad Metro decided not to do a surgery center and replace it with an entity that would generate more sales tax revenue, would that cause less heartburn for him in supporting the Stadium Trace Village expansion.
Colin Luke, another attorney for the Hoover Health Care Authority, said there would not have been a contest to the authority’s project if Kadish had gotten the economic development incentives he wanted.
Peck Fox, another attorney for Skelton, said he doesn’t have any affiliation with Kadish.
Belser said the reason for the contested application is because the city took Skelton’s ideas for a boutique hospital and later a surgery center and tried to move forward with it elsewhere with another developer.
“Loree’s efforts were thwarted by city of Hoover officials,” Belser said. “Hoover decided to capitalize on Loree’s ideas and concepts and package it into an economic development project.”
The city intentionally misled Skelton that it was going to support her project as late as April of this year but instead used all of the city’s resources and deep pockets to push an incentive package for Riverwalk Village and pushed Riverwalk Village as the only health care project needed by Hoover residents, Belser said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
David Belser, an attorney for the Forest Park Group, gives an opening statement during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Consultants for the Health Care Authority used inflated numbers to promote its expected success, but the Riverwalk Village facility likely will lose $4.2 million its first year and $3.8 million its second year, according to projections from another health care consultant, Belser said.
The Health Care Authority’s consultants overestimated how many people likely will use the Riverwalk facility, and the project actually will siphon patients away from other existing surgery centers in Shelby County, Belser said. It’s an unnecessary duplication of services, which is what the certificate of need process is designed to prevent, he said.
Officials with the city and Health Care Authority touted the strong support they received for Riverwalk Village from residents and other health care operators with hospitals in the metro area, but Belser said there’s not one letter of support from physicians in Shelby County.
A surgery center is dependent on referrals from physicians, Belser said. “This is destined to fail,” he said. “This is an attempt to clothe an economic development project in the trimmings of a purported health care project. … This is to help the city of Hoover provide an economic shot in the arm to the Riverchase area.”
It’s also worth noting that the Health Care Authority doesn’t intend to operate this facility itself but instead to bring in another health care provider to run it, Belser said. Decisions about operators usually are made by the Certificate of Need Review Board, he said.
Paquette said there are other entities that have obtained certificates of need and found a separate entity to operate a health care facility. The advantage of doing it this way is that the Health Care Authority can maintain some control and switch operators if the operator fails to meet its obligations in a way that best serves residents from Hoover and surrounding communities, Paquette said.
Also, it’s the job of the Certificate of Need Review Board to determine if there is a need, not necessarily to choose the operator of a facility, Paquette said.
Having the Health Care Authority seek the certificate of need cuts down on opposition to the project because each of the potential operators has a chance to be considered to get the contract, he said.
The Health Care Authority will seek proposals from operators and choose the one they think will best serve the residents of Hoover, Paquette said. The authority is looking for a “tried and true” operator with a good track record and reputation, the ability to attract doctors and nurses, the ability to grow and a plan for growth and marketing, he said.
Kirby, the authority attorney, said the Riverwalk Village surgery center and diagnostics center are the foundation of the mayor’s vision to provide much-needed health care services in Hoover, Shelby County and surrounding counties.
Shelby County’s population grew 14% between 2010 and 2020 and expected to grow 8.6% more by next year and 34% by 2040, Kirby said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Cason Kirby, an attorney for the Hoover Health Care Authority, gives an opening statement during a public hearing regarding the need for an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
He described Shelby County as a “health care desert” and said the county will require at least three additional outpatient surgery centers to meet demand over the next five to six years. That jumps to five new surgery centers needed if you consider population growth in surrounding counties, he said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services classifies Shelby County as a medically underserved area, and without Riverwalk Village, the county will continue to fall further behind, Kirby said.
“This is the first step to address the unmet health care needs of Shelby County,” he said.
The mayor said he has never expressed a desire to contest a surgery center proposed for Stadium Trace Village, and Kirby said it’s ironic that the Forest Park Group is saying there is no need for an outpatient surgery center in Riverchase while at the same time pushing for one at Stadium Trace Village.
The opposition effort is just a way to try to gain political or competitive leverage for their own financial incentive package, Kirby said.
Testimony before the administrative law judge is scheduled to continue Wednesday and could last 2½ weeks, the city of Hoover said in a press release. The hearings are open to the public and are being held at the south tower of the Riverwalk Village campus.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 7:02 a.m. on May 29 with information from an affidavit filed by Pat Lynch, a lobbyist for Broad Metro.
