A new plan to renovate the old St. Mary's Health Center in Jefferson City could be similar to a failed plan last year, with at least one key difference: With no state funding, Farmer Development Co. would step into the picture.
Like last year's plan, the same interested parties are involved in current discussions to move operations there: Cole County, Lincoln University and State Technical College of Missouri. It's not known whether other parties also are involved.
Farmer Development confirmed Thursday it is working with St. Mary's Hospital and other parties on a redevelopment plan for the old hospital.
Both Farmer and St. Mary's representatives, however, declined to characterize their agreement or say what other entities are involved in discussions. They said it's too early to give specifics on any plan.
"We are working with the leadership of St. Mary's as well as all of the other entities that have shown interest in the property in the past to come up with a viable redevelopment plan for the property," said Rob Kingsbury of Farmer Development.
The Farmer family started in the concrete business in 1948 and, in recent years, has grown to be a major player in local real estate development. Farmer Holding bought Capital Mall in 2012, and the following year offered a proposal to operate a conference center beside the mall. The city, which had solicited proposals, ultimately decided not to act on any of the proposals that were made.
Kingsbury declined to say if the agreement with St. Mary's is a development agreement or a contract to purchase the property.
"We have an agreement with St. Mary's that allows us to have the conversations necessary to work with them to come up with viable redevelopment plan," he said. "We are optimistic that a redevelopment can take place there, but we're far from owning the property."
St. Mary's spokeswoman Janet Wear-Enloe said, "I think at this point, the best I can tell you is - just as the community would hope we would do, we're evaluating all options that are presented to us."
A redevelopment plan last year collapsed.
Gov. Jay Nixon had endorsed a plan in which St. Mary's would have donated the property and the state would have provided $6 million for the redevelopment. Lawmakers approved the money, but also added another element to the plan: MoDOT would move its headquarters to the old hospital, and the Legislature would move into the MoDOT offices.
Nixon vetoed the funding, saying it was "not fiscally prudent."
That plan called for Lincoln University to move its nursing program and a long-discussed culinary arts program there. LU President Kevin Rome said LU is involved in current discussions to do the same thing.
"Nothing has changed - we still have the same programmatic needs," he said. "We're hopeful that it can somehow come to fruition at some point, but it's still very preliminary. At this point, it's just hope."
Donald Claycomb, president of State Technical College of Missouri, Linn, said he has discussed his college's potential involvement with Kingsbury. The school operates three programs at the Nichols Career Center at Jefferson City High School that State Tech will have to relocate due to the high school's increasing need for more space.
Those three programs - licensed nursing (LPN), dental assisting and radiology - potentially could be moved either to the old St. Mary's or relocated onto the college's Linn campus, Claycomb said.
He said it's also possible a fourth program, a physical therapy assistant program the school operates at the Capital Region Medical Center campus, could be moved.
"We haven't made a decision with the physical therapy program, because we have had a very good working relationship with Capital Region for 20-plus years, and we're not being pressed to move that program," he said.
The Cole County Commission on Thursday discussed the county's possible involvement. Commissioners and county officials generally were more interested in potentially moving the county Health Department into the old St. Mary's than the county offices that currently are downtown.
One option would be to relocate the cramped Health Department - which has 7,700 square feet and 27 employees - from 1616 Industrial Drive to the old St. Mary's medical office building, a newer building on the campus near the intersection of Missouri Boulevard and Bolivar Street.
With roughly 320,000 square feet, the old hospital potentially has room for multiple uses, including a combination of public-private development.
Kingsbury said Farmer Development itself has an interest in a development there, but declined to be more specific until a plan is solidified.