Land donation actually $23M agreement for new hospital site, minister says

Infrastructure Minister Fred Hutton says an agreement to purchase land for a new St. John's hospital is almost complete — with the same company that announced it was donating 10 acres of land to the province for the hospital on Monday.

The site for the health-care campus to replace the St. Clare's Mercy Hospital was announced on Monday. On Friday, Hutton said there's an agreement with H3 Development to purchase 54 acres of land in the Kenmount Crossing area.

"It's not quite there yet, but we do have an MOU, a memorandum of understanding, with them to do this," Hutton said.

Two representatives of H3 Development, Bert Hickman and Glen Hickey, were also a part of the announcement on Monday. Hickey told reporters that the development group was donating 10 acres of land to the hospital site, but there was no talk of any further land being purchased.

Now, as first reported by allNewfoundlandLabrador, the government's arrangement has moved beyond a donation. The province is buying the remainder of the land from H3 Development for around $23 million.

WATCH | N.L.'s deal with H3 Development could be completed soon:

N.L. buying 54 acres of land for hospital to replace St. Clare's

18 days ago

Duration 1:44

Transportation minister Fred Hutton says a $23 million dollar deal to purchase a 54-acre parcel of land in St. John's for a new hospital is almost done. It's a deal with H3 Development, the same company that announced it is donating 10 acres of land to the province on Monday, and there was no public competition for the land. The CBC's Mark Quinn reports.

A public tender for the land wasn't issued. Hutton said it isn't required in this case.

"We're not required to do a public tender for land purchase for facilities that [The Department of] Infrastructure is building. We basically, you know, look at what would be the best option in terms of where a facility like this, a health-care facility, would go," Hutton said.

Hutton said there wasn't enough Crown land available in the Kenmount Crossing area to build a hospital of the size the government believes is required.

"We need to have something roughly the same or larger than [the Health Sciences Centre], which is, as I mentioned, about 54 acres," he said.

There is Crown land adjacent to the lot, however, which Hutton said also opens up opportunities for things like housing development and access to the new hospital from the Outer Ring Road.

Hutton said Hickman approached the government with the land after learning the new hospital wouldn't be placed at the site of the former Grace Hospital in St. John's. The purchase agreement wasn't mentioned during the announcement as it wasn't completed at the time, he said.

A request for proposals will be issued to construct the hospital.

"We're still a ways out from that, but obviously with respect to anything that's built there, there has to be an RFP. That's part of our public procurement," Hutton said.

CBC asked the H3 Development Group for comment, but hadn't heard back as of Friday evening.

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.