[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish hospital financing mechanisms get state OK

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Jan 21 04:20:13 EST 2011


St. Bernard Parish hospital financing mechanisms get state OK

Published: Thursday, January 20, 2011, 11:45 PM

By Ed Anderson, The Times-Picayune

The State Bond Commission gave approval Thursday to two financing mechanisms
designed to help build and operate a new hospital in St. Bernard Parish, the
first to open there after many medical facilities were decimated by
Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The commission approved a complex method of financing the $76 million
hospital by approving up to $60 million in loans to help construct the
40-bed, 104,000-square-foot facility on a 21-acre site between St. Bernard
Highway and West Judge Perez Drive. The land was donated for the medical
complex.

The panel also authorized the St. Bernard Parish Hospital Service District
to issue up to $1.5 million in notes through March 2012 to help generate a
revenue stream for ongoing district expenses before the hospital opens.

Parish Councilman Wayne Landry said voters in the parish in November
approved an 8-mill property tax to operate the hospital. The tax will
generate $2.3 million a year for 10 years, and in the first three years the
money can be leveraged to generate a $16.3 million to get the operations on
a sound footing, Landry said.

The under-construction hospital, which should be finished in March 2012,
would be the first to set up shop in St. Bernard since Hurricane Katrina
destroyed the former Chalmette Medical Center.

"We are operating a clinic out of a modular building that is pretty much
debilitated," Landry said. "We are operating on a wing and a prayer."

The funds to help build the hospital include about $17 million in state
capital construction money, about $10 million to $12 million in new market
tax credits and about $47 million in federal grants.

The money will finance 32 medical and surgical beds and eight intensive care
unit beds, commission Director Whit Kling said. It also will provide
in-patient and out-patient services, emergency services and labs, pharmacy,
surgical and diagnostic imaging facilities.

The project also includes a 60,000-square-foot medical office building.

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson at timespicayune.com.





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