Details of Lawrence General Hospital’s purchase of the Holy Family Hospital Haverhill campus shows the real estate purchase price was an even $10 million for the 7.4-acre property completed in 1984.
As WHAV reported in August, Lawrence General Hospital paid $28 million for the combined Haverhill and Methuen campuses, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court then listed only the combined value. The deed, recorded late last week in the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds, shows LG Newcorp, 1 General St., Lawrence, purchased the property from MPT (Medical Properties Trust) of Haverhill-Steward. Steward sold the property to Birmingham, Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust for $124 million as part of a sell and leaseback deal. Officials have charged the then-inflated sales price and resulting steep rents contributed to the undoing of the hospital group.
The property transfer was effective as of Oct. 1—the day Lawrence General Hospital President and CEO Abha Agrawal oversaw ceremonies at both the Haverhill and Methuen campus locations.
“Today is the day when we step out of the fog of uncertainty onto a path of progress forward, creating a healing system of care for our patients and our team. Just a few months ago, we were on the brink of losing Holy Family Hospital, its facilities—beautiful, the care it provides, the jobs it sustains and the economic benefit it creates,” she told a crowd gathered outside Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.
The Haverhill hospital, constructed by the city of Haverhill for $30 million and completed in 1984, is located at 140 Lincoln Ave., near Brown and Savage Streets. Haverhill had owned the hospital since 1931 when it was located at 40 Buttonwoods Ave.
Southern Essex District Register of Deeds Dorothy A. Hersey said the excise tax on the sale added $45,600 to the state treasury.