Jim Fair
The City of Greer was awarded $400,000 in a summary judgment against Garrick Good and his Cardinal Real Estate Group, Inc. when it failed to execute the sale of the Allen Bennett Hospital campus.
Jim Fair
The 10-acre campus site is anchored by the 168,000-square-foot former Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital Building and 44,000-square-foot former Roger Huntington Nursing Center.
Langley and Associates was also among the creditors given favorable judgment.
“There’s not many assets there,” said Sell, who attended the court session last week. Good also was at the hearing, Sell said.
“When we see any money we will deposit it and record it,” City Administrator Ed Driggers told City Council.
City Council, with the resolution of the drawn-out legal process, approved a feasibility study to determine the best value and purpose for the 10-acre campus that is anchored by the 168,000-square-foot former Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital Building and 44,000-square-foot former Roger Huntington Nursing Center.
Results of the study aren’t expected until the first quarter of 2015.
The hospital property has been marketed by Greer Development Corporation. Companies that have expressed an interest in the property in the past have either pulled out when due diligence was performed or city officials passed on offers they thought devalued the property’s value.
The campus was valued at $6 million at the time of Good’s offer the city readily accepted.
The Greenville Hospital System gifted the site to the city in September 2010. The property was vacated when GHS opened the Greer Memorial campus in August 2008.
The city, in a high-profile press conference with Good and several associates present, on Dec. 16, 2010, announced Cardinal Real Estate Group, Inc., agreed to purchase the entire campus for $1.4 million and to develop a senior living complex and a federal Centers for Disease Control calling center.
Good announced he was investing $14.2 million and creating 100 jobs at the senior facility and 50 at the call center.
Good was contracted to pay the purchase price to the city by Feb. 1 2011. Cardinal Real Estate filed for Chapter 11 protection in March, reportedly owing list of creditors, including Langley & Associates, more than $1.6 million since agreeing to purchase the property from Greer in December 2010, according to court filings.
The city eventually commenced legal action on Sept. 12, 2011 to foreclose on the property.
There have been instances of theft, vandalism and a diesel spill since the saga began inn 2010.
A diesel spill that seeped into a nearby creek was discovered on Dec. 20, 2010 when 1,500 gallons of fuel leaked out of an emergency power generator in the hospital’s basement – 10 days after the announced agreement. DHEC claimed a beaver dam mostly contained the spill and the city facilitated the cleanup with Cardinal Real Estate and Hepaco, the same environmental remediation company that cleaned up the Victor Mill site.
DHEC announced in February 2013 that no further action was required and no threat to human health or the environment existed.