Inter Island Medical Center purchase offer withdrawn | Update

It’s back to square one on the sale of the Inter Island Medical Center property on Spring Street.

An offer on the property was withdrawn about four days after it was accepted by the San Juan County Hospital District 1 Board on June 11.

Windermere’s Bill Giesy, who is handling the sale, said the interested buyers pulled the offer because a possible collaboration with the art museum next door did not come to fruition.

“It all fizzled pretty quickly,” he said.

Giesy said the potential buyers had been discussing ways to enhance the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, next door. The old medical center building, said Giesy, would be conducive for display space and even a gift shop.

In a special meeting on Monday, June 11, San Juan County Public Hospital District 1 Board members unanimously voted to accept the offer of $925,000 from the owners of a public benefit corporation called MCS Association, which has a Friday Harbor address.

In the roughly five years on the market, Giesy estimated that the property has had about four offers, which were later withdrawn due to changed plans or lack of funding. He said he will discuss two possible new offers at the district’s regular Thursday, June 28 meeting, but explained those could change as well.

“Nothing is ever certain in this business,” he said.

The roughly 1 acre of land on Spring Street is public property because it belongs to the hospital district as it previously housed a local medical facility that operated before San Juan Island’s hospital opened in 2012.

The property includes one building, has been for sale since January of 2013 and was zoned commercial after the facility’s closure. Last February, Giesy said the property was listed for $1,090,000.

Pam Hutchins, the superintendent of the hospital district, said it costs the district roughly $33,000 a year to maintain the Spring Street property. This includes paying for landscaping and ensuring that the sprinkler system is operational. The property is next door to the former Life Care Center of the San Juan Islands, which has been empty since last January.

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