New hospital means new opportunities

New hospital means new opportunities

Land around Baptist- Crittenden site expected to see development boom

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There aren’t any signed deals yet for any of the property adjacent to the new Baptist Memorial Hospital- Crittenden.

But real estate broker Van Spear of NAI Saig Company expects that to change quickly once developers and prospective businesses see actual steel beams going up on the site, which is located at Seventh Street and the I-40 Service Road. “There is nothing under contract,” Spear said. “But there are some things in the works.”

Spear is representing the Taylor Hemingway trust which owns about 160 acres adjacent to Baptist.

Baptist Memorial Health Care broke ground on the $44 million, 62,000 square foot facility in April. The new hospital will have 11 patient beds, 10 operating rooms, and will employ about 80 people.

Contractors excavated 130 million tons of “gumbo” soil and replaced it with 160 tons of sturdier soil, which they are now waiting to compact and settle in order to bear the weight of the building. Construction will begin in November and is expected to be completed in November 2018.

Hospital officials have said they expect to see their first patients in January 2019.

Spear said land prices haven’t increased dramatically since the announcement that the hospital would be built in that area.

“I would say they are stable for the long-term asking price,” Spear said. “Nobody has dramatically increased their asking price since the hospital was announced. It’s still expensive. But it hasn’t changed.”

Spear said he isn’t able to give out an asking price per acre because the property has not been subdivided and is owned by numerous parties.

“We handle it on a caseby- case basis,” Spear said.

“People call and want to look at Lot #1. Well, there isn’t a Lot #1 because it isn’t subdivided. That’s what people don’t understand. It’s all one block. I am answering to a trust that has numerous participants in it. So every site I have to take it to them. You got to them and say ‘this one wants 150 feet of frontage, 250 feet of depth, and they want it here. How are you going to price it?”

Spear said the closest comparables are the La Quinta behind Cracker Barrel, which paid $220,000 an acre for a site just under two acres, and the new Tru by Hilton on 18th Street and the Service Road, which paid $167,000 per acre for three acres.

“That will give you some idea of what the numbers are going to look like,” Spear said.

Spear said the trust has no plans to subdivide the acreage.

“This is individual family ownerships with all different needs and interests and there is not a developer among them,” Spear said.

“They have a basic plan and hired an engineer who made a nice layout, at least a conceptual plan. But if you’re going to develop 150 acres, it takes a developer.”

Spear said he has heard from site selectors inquiring about the property for various restaurants, hotels, and professional buildings, but nothing has materialized

just yet.

He expects the phone will start ringing again once the actual superstructure on the hospital begins to rise.

“We’re still getting calls,” Spear said. “But there isn’t an increased demand right now. When they see paving they don’t get too excited.

But when you see a building coming up from the ground, that’s when people start to get excited and that’s when activity will pick up. But there is no doubt in my mind that some of the people who have made inquiries are going to ramp up their plans.”

By Mark Randall