Did you know that Baptist Health did a rewind on the sale of its nursing and allied health schools at 11900 Col. Glenn Road?
The 121,211-SF facility was repurchased for $8.5 million last month from BCP-Colonel Glenn LLC, whose ownership includes Sam Alley, secretary-treasurer of the Baptist Health Foundation Board of Trustees.
You might recall that Baptist sold the project in an $8.5 million sale-leaseback deal in June. The 17.4-acre campus also is home to Baptist support services, including home health, information technology and call center operations.
The idea was to lease the property until the former Leisure Arts campus at 5701 Ranch Road in west Little Rock could be converted to replace it.
Baptist Health paid $12.5 million in April 2013 for a 24.4-acre piece of the Leisure Arts development, which included a 71,762-SF office building and 175,305-SF distribution center.
What happened to nix the move?
Baptist officials crunched the numbers on renovating the Leisure Arts space and logistical challenges of relocating its schools. The answer was: bad idea.
The change of heart coincides with a change of leadership at Baptist: Russ Harrington retired as president and CEO on July 1 and was succeeded by Troy Wells, formerly senior vice president of administrative services at Baptist Health.
What prompted Baptist to spend $12.5 million without a thorough analysis of the financial metrics? Unclear.
According to anecdotal accounts, Baptist was presented with preliminary numbers that cast the 2013 deal in a favorable light. However, a closer look at the numbers in 2014 revealed the purchase-relocation deal wasn’t so attractive.
Baptist officials are evaluating what to do with their $12.5 million real estate investment.
Sam Winstead, former trustee at the Baptist Health Foundation, is credited with helping make the Leisure Arts deal happen.
The same day Baptist bought most of the Leisure Arts property in April 2013, Leisure Arts transferred ownership of a remaining 3.5-acre piece at no cost to Winstead’s Professional Property Co. LLC.
This land was sold seven months later to the Little Rock School District for $800,000 as part of the new middle school site.