(Additional photographic and historic development plan below.)
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New outdoor signs replacing the storied Pentucket Medical name in downtown Haverhill do not reflect any new change in medical care, but rather rebranding after a series of mergers dating back to 1999.
Mass General Brigham spokesperson Alexandra Virginia Pantano told WHAV that new “Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center” signs facing Main Street and other locations in Andover, Lawrence and Newburyport represent only a name change and, “There are no changes for patients at this time.”
“While internal signage, website information and the patient portal has showcased the Mass General Brigham brand for several years, the exterior signage was recently updated,” she said.
The removal of the “Pentucket Medical” name severs a connection to more than a half century of Haverhill history. During the same time, local ownership of most other hospitals and health care providers also gave way to out-of-town corporate consolidation.
For many years, Pentucket Medical operated at 116 Summer St., before the company partnered with then-Columbia, Maryland developer Frederick Glassberg of Crysen Haverhill Limited Partnership.
“We’re talking to the people from Maryland about buying a building,” Pentucket Medical Associates manager Edward G. “Ted” Atwood said in 1985. He explained the medical practice had then added seven additional physicians, for a total of 17, but had little room to house them.
Pentucket Medical ultimately completed the deal and broke ground in 1986 to construct the two-wing, four-story brick building roughly on the site of Haverhill’s old City Hall. It’s new $6.2 million building opened in 1987. Crysen would build one other structure—a White’s Corner building that later became the headquarters of Pentucket Bank. Other parts of the development, including a proposed 150-room hotel, 58,500-square-foot retail building and 160-unit housing complex never materialized. The city would ultimately use part of the property to build Haverhill’s new police station at 40 Bailey Blvd.
According to a 2014 Notice of Material Change filing with the state Health Policy Commission, Partners Community HealthCare purchased the Pentucket Medical Associates physicians practice in 1999 by buying 100% of the Haverhill-based company’s stock. Papers filed with the state in 2014 said it completely merged into Partners back in 2002. Partners Community HealthCare was an affiliate of Partners HealthCare Systems—itself formed in 1994 by the merger of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Like the former Pentucket Medical, all of the entities are now known as Mass General Brigham.
At the time, the state Commission expressed concern the health care conglomerate would have too much leverage and could extract higher rates from health plans, higher payer rates and shift patient referrals away from local hospitals and physicians.
Mass General Brigham, however, did not buy the One Parkway building. It continued to be owned locally by Pentucket Medical Realty Limited Partnership until 2019 when, according to a press release at the time, it was purchased for $15.5 million to Irvine, Calif.-based American Healthcare Investors. The partnership included Doctors Thomas L. Fazio, Sherwood B. Lee, Steven P. Bloom and William A. Tanguay.
“Known locally as the Pentucket Medical Center, One Park Way is the Merrimack Valley’s most recognizable healthcare address,” said Newmark Knight Frank Senior Managing Director Michael Greeley at the time. “The purpose-built medical office building boasts an efficient layout for a wide variety of healthcare practices and features a full range of clinical specialties with significant tenant investment. The asset has been a flagship location for Pentucket Medical Associates since its development in the late eighties, and we congratulate our client, a private partnership, on this successful disposition after three decades of exceptional stewardship.”
The words, “Pentucket Medical Building” remain in steel letters on one side.
The words, “Pentucket Medical Building” remain in steel letters on one side as the property is owned by Irvine, Calif.-based American Healthcare Investors. (WHAV News photograph.)
Revised 1986 redevelopment plan by Crysen Haverhill Limited Partnership that includes Pentucket Medical.