$10 Million for long-abandoned Ashland hospital? It’s listed for sale, again.
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The former St. Catherine Medical Center in Fountain Springs on June 17, 2021.
FOUNTAIN SPRINGS – Two months after it sold for $500,000, an Allentown-based limited liability company is looking to get 20-times their investment on a long-abandoned medical center.
The former Saint Catherine Medical Center in Fountain Springs is listed on LoopNet for $10 Million.
The second iteration of Schuylkill County’s first hospital, the medical center has been largely abandoned since its 2012 closure.
Instead of treating patients in a region health networks have recognized desperately needs healthcare services, the hospital has instead seen squatters, scrappers, and military re-enactments in recent years.
Ashland Properties Management, LLC, of 1207 Union Boulevard, Allentown, is listed as the property’s owner on the Schuylkill County Parcel Locator, though they sold the facility to Ashland Property Holdings LLC, of the same address, in March for $500,000.
Last month, the facility went back on the market for 20-fold.
Lou Fisher, with Douglas Elliman Commercial, is the broker for the property.
The listing calls the property “an incredible re-development opportunity.”
“This former medical facility lends itself to many applications from residential apartments to a multitude of senior/medical projects,” the listing states. “It would also be an ideal resort or rehabilitation site with its sprawling grounds (20+/-ACRES) there are multiple additional buildings on site including a stone structure that could not be reproduced today at any price.”
The listing erroneously claims the 1967-built hospital was instead built in 1979 on the online listing and 2002 on the flyer attached thereto.
This recent listing is the highest asking price for the abandoned hospital in recent years. It had previously been listed for $1.5 Million in 2018, boasting upgrades to the roof, boiler system, and more, which the recent listing continues to boast despite being nearly 10 years old.
It instead sold for $719,250 in 2021 at auction.
The hospital opened in 1882 as the State Hospital for Injured Persons of the Anthracite Coal Region at Fountain Springs, with the first patient being John Lucas, of Shenandoah, a miner injured at Shenandoah’s Kohinoor Colliery, in 1883.
In 1967, the current hospital building was built and it became the Ashland State General Hospital.
In the 1990’s, the Commonwealth divested itself of its state hospitals and a local board acquired the facility, renaming it Ashland Regional Medical Center.
In 2001, Province Healthcare, of Tennessee, acquired the facility, and in 2006, it sold the facility to Saint Catherine Hospital of Pennsylvania LLC.
By 2012, the facility was in financial turmoil, with employee paychecks bouncing and a lack of key medical supplies.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued orders keeping the hospital from admitting new patients or performing lab work. Shortly after, the hospital closed.
It was the last hospital in northern Schuylkill County, outlasting Shenandoah Heights’ Locust Mountain State General Hospital by about 30 years.
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