Art hanging up hospital opening
DEDEDO, GUAM An entire floor of hospital beds sits idle and may remain so unless this island’s only private hospital buys $1.5 million worth of local art or comes up with an acceptable alternative to comply with a local law, officials said.
At issue is Guam’s Percent for the Arts law, which requires certain private developers and government entities to buy local artwork worth at least 1% of the overall construction, remodeling or renovation cost of a building. The law requires developers who hold tax breaks under the government of Guam’s qualifying certificate program to comply.
The law also gave the Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency the power, along with agencies that inspect buildings for safety and building code compliance, to block the occupancy permit for a building or portion of a building, said Joseph Cameron, president of the Department of Chamorro Affairs. The arts council falls under his department’s umbrella.
So nearly half of Guam Regional Medical City’s in-patient beds — 58 beds on the facility’s fifth floor — can’t be used without the council’s approval of the occupancy permit. The beds have been ready since early December when the Guam Fire Department’s fire marshal signed off on its safety compliance, hospital management said Monday. The hospital is partially open now.
The hospital has spent $205,000 on nearly 800 works of art from more than 50 Guam artists, said Francis Santos, chief administrative service officer.
Public officials in Guam, a U.S. territory, went on trips internationally and to the United States several years ago to encourage a private hospital developer to invest here because of the island’s recurring shortages of hospital beds at the government-run Guam Memorial Hospital, Pacific Daily News files show. The Medical City, a major hospital network in the Philippines, was the only company that responded with its time and money.
The hospital construction cost was about $150 million.
“That means a total of $1.5 million is expected from GRMC to complying with the Percent for the Arts public law,” Cameron said. The hospital’s contributions when complete will be nearly three times the arts council’s annual budget, which hovers around $500,000.
Members of the Guam Economic Development Authority board, which administers the tax-break program, have become vocal about the law’s potential effect on future development.
“Let’s say the next investors invest $500 million,” board member George Chiu said. “Do we expect them to buy $5 million worth of local art?”