Historic hospitals get a second life
Century-old buildings being converted into apartments as real-estate market tightens
WASHINGTON— When Laura Kiker rented a new apartment last fall, a few blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., she knew she was moving into a historical neighbourhood.
But she had no idea her new home, at 700 Constitution Ave., was a former wing of a century-old hospital.
Today, she lives in what once was known as Eastern Dispensary Casualty Hospital, a four-storey building with wide hallways, high ceilings and restored post-Second World War architecture.
Aspacious rooftop deck, a yoga studio and an indoor dog wash are added bonuses for Kiker and her dog, Stella.
“There is so much history in this town, it’s nice to live in a place that has its own,” said Kiker, 30, a management consultant.
Across the U.S., hospitals that have shut their doors are coming back to life in various ways: As affordable senior housing, as historical hotels and as condos, including some costing tens of millions in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village.
The trend of converting hospitals to new uses has accelerated as real estate values have soared in many cities.
At the same time, the demand for in-patient beds has declined with the rise of outpatient surgery centres and a move toward shorter hospital stays.
St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York treated survivors of the Titanic’s sinking in 1912, the first AIDS patients in the 1980s and victims of the Sept.11-terrorist attacks in 2001. But it filed for bankruptcy protection and closed seven years ago. Developer Rudin Management bought it for $260 million (U.S.) and transformed it into a high-end condo complex that opened in 2014. Former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz bought one of the condos for $40 million.
Jen van de Meer, an assistant professor at the Parsons School for Design in New York, who lives in the neighbourhood, said residents’ protests about the conversion were not just about the optics of a hospital that had long served the poor being repurposed.
“Now, if you are in cardiac arrest, the nearest hospital could be an hour drive in a taxi or 20 minutes in an ambulance across the city,” van de Meer said.
St. Vincent’s is one of at least 10 former hospitals in New York City that have been turned into residential housing over the past 20 years.
“It’s all about location, location, location,” Terry Busby, CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Urban Structures, said when asked why former hospitals are being redeveloped as housing.
They are often in city centres near public transportation.
Moreover, the buildings, with their wide hallways and high ceilings, are easy to remake as luxury apartments.
Some former hospitals are used for purposes other than housing.
After Linda Vista Community Hospital, in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighbourhood, closed in the 1990s, the abandoned six-storey building fell into disrepair and served as sets for movies such as Pearl Harbor and Outbreak.
AMCAL Multi-Housing bought the property in 2011 and redeveloped it into a low-income senior apartment house called Hollenbeck Terrace.
“They really rescued a building with tremendous history . . . while providing really needed low-income senior housing,” said Linda Dishman, CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The trend of converting hospitals to new uses has accelerated as real-estate values have soared in many cities
In Washington, neighbours weighed in with concerns when the 100,000-square-foot wing of the former Eastern Dispensary Casualty Hospital, which has become 700 Constitution, was sold off.
The converted apartments — one of which is now home to Kiker and her dog — are brand new, with stainlesssteel appliances, including refrigerators, microwaves and gas stoves.
A key feature of the units is thick walls that keep things quiet. The bathrooms have modern shower stalls with glass doors and large shower heads. All the units have LED track lighting and granite countertops, and washers and dryers. There is a parking garage below the building.
The building is less than a 10-minute walk to Eastern Market Metro and less than 15 minutes from Amtrak at Union Station.
Nearly half of the 139-unit building, where one-bedroom apartments rent for nearly $2,600 per month, is already leased.