North Suburban Hospital Board Begins to Sell Off Property

The North Suburban Hospital District was formed in the 1960s when Unity was originally constructed. Since then it has levied taxes in Blaine, Spring Lake Park, Fridley, Mounds View and Hilltop to pay for improvements at Unity. Allina recognizes that the hospital district has been good stewards of the taxpayer dollars over the decades but feels that the taxation is no longer needed.

“We really did believe that the North Suburban Hospital District and that model have run it’s course and that moving forward it would just be prudent for us to step in, purchase that property and eliminate that tax burden from the five communities who were supporting it in the past,” said Criger.

Last fall when Allina announced that Unity Hospital and Mercy Hospital would become one hospital with two campuses several community members were upset. A lawsuit was filed and three candidates ran for seats on the hospital board under the Save our Hospital banner. Two of those candidates were elected and since coming on board in January they been able to find some common ground with Allina.

“We had a lot of good healthy conversations with concerned citizens about A. what we were doing and B. some of that confusion around what the North Suburban Hospital Districts role in operating the Unity campus.  I think we’ve had a lot of clarity around that.  A couple of the seats on the North Suburban Hospital Board changed.  We’ve met with those board members, we’ve had some really good conversation about communication what we are doing and how is it meeting the communities needs and I think we’ve gotten to a really good place with those individuals and some of the community members at large,” said Criger.

The hospital board’s decision to transfer Unity to Allina ownership was unanimous. The hospital board is still on a path to dissolving but they will still have much work to do after Unity goes to Allina.

“The hospital district has property that it still owns surrounding the campus and in the campus so even with the hospital itself being transferred the hospital district still owns the land that is across Osborne.  It owns what we call the strip mall next to it Allina is currently using for training.  The hospital district owns the community gardens behind the facilities.  then their is a pond it owns as well as an interest in the parking lot.  The hospital district still has quite a bit of property it needs to dispose of before it can formally go out of business,” said Lepak.

Then they will have to make a decision as to how to disperse the proceeds from the sales of those properties.

“The Property gets sold, then those proceeds get put into the hospital districts basic bank accounts.  Those bank accounts when the hospital board is taking care of all its obligations and is down to not having any property the net proceeds then get distributed back into the five member cities.  We’ve met with each of them, they’ve all given us their opinion on how that money should come back to them and what formula.  The Hospital District Board just has to figure out what formula they want to take or create their own,” said Lepak.

Hospital districts where once much more common but the healthcare landscape shifted.

“I don’t expect to see another metro area hospital district ever set up that’s actually going to run a hospital.  It’s too big business and it’s something the government really it’s not their strength,” said Lepak.