GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Hospital Rejects $29M Purchase Bid; Votes for Demolition

ORLANDO-The governing board of Florida Hospital Waterman, a 64-year-old, five-story, 325,000-sf acute care hospital scheduled to close in summer 2003, plans to demolish the building and give the cleared 14 acres to a community trust for redevelopment in Downtown Eustis, FL, 30 miles northwest of Orlando.

In a move that surprised several commercial brokers, the board rejected a $29 million offer for the 182-bed building from Los Angeles-based Dream Harvest Inc. which planned to develop the former hotel resort property into a new seniors multifamily complex, spa, 10,000 sf of retail and a paddleboat dock for dinner cruises.

Instead, the community trust will sell the land to the highest and best-qualified bidder after the beige brick building is demolished at an estimated cost of $2 million.