There’s been news about both of the former medical facilities this past year, and new life has been mentioned in each storyline.
East Ohio Regional Hospital was purchased from MPT LLC before just as the pandemic began, and Bernie Albertini was announced as the chief operating officer in May. Albertini served in the same capacity for the Ohio Valley Medical Center and EORH before departing the Upper Ohio Valley for an opportunity in Arizona in 2016, but he came home to resurrect Martins Ferry’s medical facility.
The original goal was to reopen EORH before the end of 2020, and although that won’t take place it will in the near future. The renovations are in final stages, and while some construction will continue, the emergency room and hospital will be operational as soon as all inspections take place and licenses are issued.
The story about the OVMC campus has been far different. At least 750 jobs were lost when Alecto-West Virginia shuttered operations more than a year ago, but not until June 2020 were the properties acquired by the city of Wheeling. A new police headquarters will be created at the Valley Professional Building in 2021, and interest in the other six buildings has grown each month since.
The Future
While the immediate future of the East Ohio facility is to become a functioning hospital again, the coming months does not include many definites for the structures on the OVMC campus. The repurposes could vary from building to building with city offices, residential units, psychiatric and medical facilities … all have been mentioned but not yet have been finalized.
Meanwhile, most of the infrastructure in the guts of East Ohio Regional has been removed and replaced with new chillers and heating units, and the installation of new flooring, medical equipment, and a plethora of reconfigurations have taken place within the exterior to make room for drug and alcohol rehabilitation and psychiatric units. Dr. John Johnson, a psychiatrist from the Akron area, purchased EORH with the goal of opening in November, but the pandemic and red tape with the state of Ohio has delayed the date.
“I know very well how much this community depended on this hospital when it was open,” Albertini said in September. “That’s why we’re looking forward to getting this hospital open again.”
Unlike the situation with the Martins Ferry hospital, what happens next with the West Tower and the former home of Hillcrest, the South Tower and the East Building, and the former nurses residence, for the most part, remain unanswered. Pipe bursts have been repaired, the boiler fired up for winter, and the city’s onsite maintenance staff members are seldom bored.
If the Talk Walks
Attorneys representing Dr. Johnson have called the city to inquire about the OVMC campus, and so has a college, several non-profits, and a few different business owners. Two weeks ago, the Winter Freeze Shelter operated by Youth Services System opened on the third floor of the Hillcrest building instead of at the organization’s headquarters in East Wheeling.
Kurt Zende, the economic development specialist for the city of Wheeling, has been fielding phone calls and guiding tours the past few months with hopes of collecting a carousel of occupants if not owners. Members of Wheeling’s City Council voted in favor of acquiring the properties six months ago because of the potential, yes, but also because of its large footprint in Center Wheeling and its importance to commerce at Centre Market.
“When Alecto shut everything down, there was a very noticeable difference in the amount of football traffic at the market house,” Zende said. “The OVMC employees were a big part of the business that took place, and not just at lunch time. We would see a lot of those employees before and after their shifts, too, because of how convenient it was for them.
“There’s about 800,000 square feet in these buildings, and that means there’s a lot of elevators and infrastructure and things like that,” he said. “Some of the conversations I have had about some of the buildings have been very encouraging so I’m looking for good things to happen in 2021, I really am.”
