Memorial Health Systems of South Bend has closed on the acquisition of 53 acres on Ind. 49 for a new Valparaiso hospital and has opened a project office.

Memorial, which announced plans in July to build a new hospital campus in Valparaiso, closed on the property on Oct. 19, said Memorial Vice-President Diane Stover.

The property, at the northeast corner of Ind. 49 and C.R. 500N., is located in the city of Valparaiso in Washington Township.

The initial plans call for a 100-bed hospital that would be capable of expanding to 250 beds.

Stover said Memorial has opened a project office at 2803 Boilermaker Court.

The office will provide a meeting space for officials as they plan the new hospital.

Memorial is currently in a “fact-finding phase” with physicians to identify needed hospital services. Plans are also in the works to establish focus groups with community members to hear what hospital services they would like to see, Stover said.

No date has been set yet for the groundbreaking, Stover said, but tentatively, the plans call for the hospital complex to be completed in 2010. No name has been decided yet for the new Valparaiso hospital.

The city has proposed placing the property in a Tax Increment Financing district.

That means that property taxes paid on the new development would not go to other taxing units, such as the county government and the East Porter County School Corporation, but will be “captured” by the city’s redevelopment commission for infrastructure projects.

In September, Community Health Systems, the new owner of Porter hospital, announced that it has secured an option to purchase about 105 acres at the northwest corner of U.S. 6 and Ind. 49 in unincorporated Liberty Township for its new hospital. Groundbreaking is expected early next year on the new hospital, which will have a minimum of 225 all-private rooms.

CHS is required to build a new hospital in Porter County within four years under the terms of its purchase of the former county-owned hospital.

As they appear from Ind. 49, both the CHS and the Memorial properties are now heavily wooded.

Posted 11/5/2007