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Despite the opposition of Sheila Tyson, the Jefferson County Commission on Tuesday moved the sale of the old Cooper Green Mercy Hospital building to the agenda of Thursday’s commission meeting.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has offered to buy the property in a deal Tyson said too greatly favors the buyer.
UAB was given the right of first refusal to buy the old hospital building when the county approved the creation of the Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority in April 2019. The authority provides patient care at the new Cooper Green Mercy medical building next door to the former site. That agreement with UAB passed on a 3-2 vote, with commissioners Jimmie Stephens and Joe Knight and then-Commissioner Steve Ammons voting yes. Tyson and Commissioner Lashunda Scales voted no. The resulting seven-member authority board has four members appointed by UAB, and it can accept or reject the county’s appointees.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Tyson cited a county appraisal of the building that set the value at $11 million. But UAB’s offer is less, and the county would have to tear down the old hospital building.
“If that’s what it appraised for, why would we cut a deal with UAB for this piece of property?” Tyson asked. “It seems like we are always giving them money, and they are already over there running Cooper Green. But if this is the price, they either take it or leave it. I don’t understand. I know they say the property is more valuable with the building off. Well, they either take it or leave it. If not, sell it to someone else that’s willing to buy it or lease it out because that money is going toward youth detention, and we need all the money we can get.” Tyson said money from the sale will go toward building a new youth detention center.
County Manager Cal Markert said the county and UAB each hired an appraiser, with the county’s appraisal being $11.197 million and UAB’s appraisal coming in at $9.6 million. He said the county’s higher value was with the building removed from the property, so the county had to cover the cost of demolition.
“After much discussion, they came up to $10.7 (million),” Markert said. “We felt pretty good about that, but we still had to deal with demolition costs. So we did an estimate. They did an estimate. Their estimate was $2.9 million. Our estimate was $2.7 (million). If you take the agreed-upon appraisal value, $10.7 (million), … and you subtract the demolition cost, you come (up with) the $7.8 million.
“The building was more of a hazard than any kind of asset,” the county manager continued. “Unfortunately, the paperwork in our agreement with UAB stated this is how we determine a price. If we can’t agree on this price, the next step in the agreement states, each appraiser, the one we hired and the one they hired, they agree on a third appraiser to hire and then they will tell us the price of the land and the demolition. We feel we may not be getting the best deal, but we’re kind of getting all we can do.”
Stephens estimated that the county’s cost for utilities at the old Cooper Green is about $15,000 a month. County Attorney Theo Lawson added that the property is on the county’s insurance policy.
Scales looked back to the initial agreement with UAB.
“I’m saying from the beginning of when this commission decided to go with UAB so that they can take on patients and that whole PR thing that went on that I was a part of,” she said. “That’s the agreement I’m referring to. … Now you’re at the tail end of this thing. You’ve given them the parking deck and now you’re on to this last little piece, which is the Cooper Green building itself. This horse is all the way out the gate.”
Stephens said he appreciated the discussion broached by Tyson.
“If nothing else, that has brought to light that we need to be a better partner,” he said. “We need to expect a better partnership from our other stakeholders.”
