MVHS selects firms to handle appraisals of downtown properties impacted by hospital project

UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) has selected three companies to begin the appraisals of the downtown properties that the new hospital construction project will impact.

The firms are DeWitt–based CNY Appraisal Associates; Buffalo–based Emminger, Newton, Pigeon & Magyar Inc.; and Goodman-Marks Associates, Inc., which is headquartered in Mineola on Long Island.

MVHS has mailed a letter to downtown property owners informing them of the anticipated process and timeline, the organization said in a recent news release.

“We want to begin the valuation of the downtown properties as we anticipate it will take three to six months to complete the appraisals,” Scott Perra, president and CEO of MVHS, said in the release. “We have been working with Mohawk Valley EDGE, which will be the entity who will retain the appraisal firms and assist MVHS in the valuation process. EDGE will manage the outreach and scheduling with property owners and assist us in the formulation of our acquisition strategy.”

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.

The firms will appraise property areas that include several city blocks south of the Utica Memorial Auditorium, bounded by Oriskany Street to the north, properties abutting Columbia Street to the south and Broadway to the east as well as State Route 12 to the west.

In the meantime, MVHS continues to work on the final funding plan for the project.

The organization is working with New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) on the application process for the $300 million, including a “request for approval” from the NYSDOH and state legislators “to move forward.”

Officials had “anticipated they’d be further along” in the process by the end of the summer. They’re “readjusting” their timelines to late September or early October, MVHS said.

“The offers that will follow the appraisal process are contingent on New York State (NYS) approval of a certificate of need (CON) for the new hospital,” said Perra. “We don’t anticipate any property offers until sometime in 2017 after we have approval from the state to move forward.”

MVHS noted that this is a “complex project with multiple steps and approvals that need to happen in tandem with each other.”

If the health-care organization can make offers in the first six months of 2017, then hospital construction could begin in 2018.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com