Brownsville Hospital assets to be auctioned
PITTSBURGH – The personal property assets at the former Brownsville General Hospital Inc. (BGH) will be auctioned next Tuesday in Federal Bankruptcy Court. Federal Bankruptcy Judge M. Bruce McCullough Tuesday ruled that he could not abstain from overseeing the sale because the sale is strictly a bankruptcy court proceeding.
“As far as we can tell, the sale is to go forward,” McCullough said.
Lawrence Bolla, the attorney representing Brownsville General Hospital Inc., the for-profit company that purchased the hospital just over a year ago, then closed and declared bankruptcy this January, said there could be a bidder interested in buying the real estate as well as the personal property.
Frank Ricco, president of the non-profit Brownsville Property Corp. (BPC), which owns the real estate, said he doesn’t believe anyone is truly interested in buying the building and reached Tuesday evening, he said he was upset by McCullough’s ruling.
“I’m very disappointed. It just devastates the community,” Ricco said.
Attorney John Vetica, representing the BPC, said that if the real estate is also sold, the proceeds would go to the hospital’s creditors. Bolla said the total amount of the hospital’s debts is not yet known, since claims may still be filed. Bolla said he anticipates a substantial claim to be filed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health filed an objection to the sale, noting that its Office of Public Health Preparedness had given BGH grants totaling nearly $95,000 in 2004 for bioterrorism preparedness. While some of the money was for renovations to the facilities to meet preparedness requirements, about half was designated for radios and communications equipment, a decontamination tent, computer equipment and software, and security cameras.
Bolla said the equipment purchased with the grant money that had been included with the auction items was valued at $5,000 and that amount would be deducted from the auction upset price. He also agreed to deduct $10,000, the assessed value of bandages and other supplies from a company that had filed a claim against the hospital, with the items to be returned to the firm.
Those reductions bring the minimum auction price to $360,000. A bid for $350,000 has already been received from American General to set the starting amount for the auction.
Vetica and the state Attorney General’s office had attempted to stop the sale of the personal property in bankruptcy court in the hopes that BPC could find a new tenant interested in running a hospital on the site again. Bolla and attorney Kirk Burkley, who represents the creditors, had filed briefs last week asking that the sale be allowed to continue.
Burkley said he is not opposed to seeing the hospital reopened.
“I’ve been talking to a company out of Houston (Texas). I’ve been trying to shop to them the benefit of having a lease rent-free for the next two years,” Burkley said.
“We don’t believe the lease is assumable,” Vetica said.
The BPC has been seeking a new tenant for the hospital property.
Ricco has said that a business plan is being developed to bring the facility back to life, offering urgent care and laboratory services, if not a full-service hospital.