MVHS plans property-owner meetings in hospital project during second half of 2017

UTICA, N.Y. — Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) anticipates holding meetings with property owners that its hospital project impacts during the third and fourth quarter of this year.

MVHS on April 4 announced the state had awarded it a $300 million health-care facility transformation grant.

The organization is now working to provide information about meeting the conditions of the grant before it can enter into a master-grant contract (MGC) with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), MVHS said in a news release issued Thursday.

After completing the contract with the NYSDOH, MVHS will begin setting up meetings with each individual property owner.

The organization will provide information on the property appraisals, a new estimate on the timeline for purchase of properties, and details on when MVHS expects construction work at the site will begin.

MVHS noted that it “realizes” each property owner has “unique needs and will work with them to support a successful transition” for their business and/or building and tenants.

“We recognize that the time spent waiting for all of the many details of the funding for the new hospital to be finalized has been very difficult for the property owners,” Scott Perra, president and CEO of MVHS, said in the release. “Several have told us that while they are willing to move, they are looking for a more solid time frame on when the moving process will need to begin. We have sent letters out to property owners this week to continue to keep them updated and will be working on solidifying the timeline when the MGC is complete and we begin our engagement with the architects and construction manager.”

MVHS is an affiliation of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC), both of Utica. The two organizations teamed up in March 2014.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com