Officials ‘eagerly awaiting’ progress on plans to transform vacant hospital
Blue Island’s vacant MetroSouth Medical Center, proposed to be converted to housing for older military veterans, remains untouched and there has been little information from the owner about the property’s direction, Mayor Fred Bilotto said Wednesday.
Veterans Services USA, a Florida-based nonprofit, owns the 550,000-square-foot property, 12935 Gregory St., according to property tax records.
It offers housing and services such as education and training to military veterans, according to its website.
It has proposed converting the property into housing for older veterans and, on its website, said that part of the former hospital is being used as a film studio.
Bilotto, a former alderman elected two years ago as Blue Island’s mayor, said the property is being maintained but said the city has not received any proposals for repurposing the hospital.
“We are eagerly awaiting something,” he said Wednesday.
A message left Wednesday at Veterans Services’ offices was not immediately returned.
Opened in 1905 as St. Francis Hospital, MetroSouth, 12935 Gregory
St., closed in 2019. Its owner at the time, Tennessee-based Quorum Health, cited ongoing multimillion-dollar losses in securing state approval to close it.
Quorum said before the decision was made to close, it had been in contact with several other hospital operators to take it over, without success.
Under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, work began in March 2020 to prepare MetroSouth to handle up to 550 patients, as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded and there was a race to provide enough hospital
space to care for the anticipated flood of patients.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency earmarked $20 million for the project.
Despite the investment of federal money, the hospital “was never used, it was never opened up” during the pandemic, Bilotto said.
“I know they never had anybody going in there,” he said.
The mayor said the property’s fire suppression system is not operating and no occupancy allowed.
At its website, Veterans Services said 140,000 square feet of Metro South is being rented for film production, although Bilotto said that while filming took place inside the hospital some months ago, there is no active film studio operating.
The closure of the hospital and its emergency department meant Blue Island and other communities nearby are transporting patients to other area hospitals such as Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn or Ingalls Memorial in Harvey.
For ambulances transporting a critically ill patient, “it’s a good 20 minutes, and that’s if there’s not a train,” Bilotto said.
He said Veterans Services had, in late 2021, made a presentation to city officials about plans for converting the hospital, but that no firm proposal has been made.
“I can’t believe it can’t be turned into something,” Bilotto said. “We’re very eager for something to be submitted.”
Charles Everhardt, a principal of Veterans Services, has an extensive background in commercial real estate development and the nonprofit owns hotels, according to the its website.
It is working on redeveloping vacant properties in cities such as Dayton, Ohio, and Memphis, Tennessee, for housing for older veterans, according to its website.