A Springfield developer has acquired the shuttered former Vibra Hospital of Springfield and says he plans to rent it to an undisclosed tenant involved in “ancillary health care.”
Developer Chris Stone told Illinois Times he finalized the $1.43 million purchase from Pennsylvania-based Vibra Healthcare on Dec. 6 and plans to have the tenant move in by July 1.
The 40,000-square-foot building cost $25 million to construct and housed a 50-bed, for-profit specialty hospital owned by two different companies since it opened in 2010.
Stone was vague when asked about the new tenant and whether patients would be served on-site.
“They could have clients on the property, but it’s not like they would be there for days on end,” he said without elaboration. The new tenant may wait until March to go public with its plans, Stone said.
Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vibra Hospital site was temporarily acquired by the state for potential use as overflow space to care for COVID-19 patients.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency, which took possession of the building using Gov. JB Pritzker’s emergency powers, later determined the building wouldn’t be needed and returned it to its owners in June 2020, IEMA spokesman Kevin Sur said.
“We did negotiate an amount to pay the owners as just compensation in connection with the legal proceeding,” Sur said in an email.
The former Vibra Hospital, 701 N. Walnut St., a three-story building just west of the Mid-Illinois Medical District, shut its doors as a long-term acute-care (LTAC) hospital in January 2019. The closure put about 130 employees out of work.
Vibra officials said at the time that “reductions in health-care reimbursements and changes in referral patterns” led to the closure.
The facility opened in 2010 and was constructed by Kindred Healthcare, a publicly traded company based in Kentucky that operates LTACs. Kindred won out over two other companies to receive state “certificate-of-need” approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.
Kindred later sold the building in 2013 to Vibra for $10.5 million.
Although it’s now been vacant for three years, Stone said the building is in “phenomenal shape” and contains a “significant amount of stuff.”
The State Journal-Register reported in 2020 that the Army Corps of Engineers said the site contained 50 patient beds, 15 ventilators and other equipment commonly found in hospitals.
Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon County Growth Alliance, told Illinois Times he heard the building was sold but didn’t have specifics and didn’t know anything about Stone’s prospective tenant.
“It’s a really good building,” McCrady said. “It’s a good property. We would be excited to see it used.”
He noted that the site is within a mile of Springfield Memorial Hospital, HSHS St. John’s Hospital, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and other medical facilities.
The Vibra property generated $48,737 in property taxes in 2021 and was listed in Sangamon County records with a fair market value of $1.66 million. The highest property tax bill paid by the site was $204,540 in 2019, based on its 2018 assessment.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer for Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com or 217-679-7810.
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