The city’s oldest hospital, located in the Westlake district and encompassing five buildings and 674,000 square feet, has only briefly served as an overflow campus for COVID-19 patients since it was purchased more than two years ago. .
St. Vincent’s originally closed in January 2020 following ongoing financial struggles leading to bankruptcy. Billionaire bioscientist Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, purchased the hospital for $135 million in April of the same year at the start of the pandemic, claiming the facility would be used as a “premier [COVID-19] research center.”
“The calls to reopen the vacant St. Vincent Medical Center are getting louder, and rightfully so,” Westlake Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell said in a statement after he introduced a resolution urging the state to purchase or lease the hospital so it can reopen. “We need partnership from all levels of government, as well as Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a multibillionaire, to step up to the plate and reopen St. Vincent Medical Center as an acute care facility for people experiencing homelessness.”
Dr. Soon-Shiong declined to respond to the resolution, but in May he told the publication, “We are still evaluating the best use for that property. A biotech center, a COVID research center — all are being considered.”
Dr. Soon-Shiong enlisted the help of Chicago-based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to find new potential tenants for the site. It remains unclear if the site will remain a full service hospital once a tenant is found.