Hudson Regional Hospital is ready to purchase the Christ Hospital land in Jersey City and are currently the frontrunners to operate the three CarePoint Health hospitals, according to a letter and sources familiar for the situation.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We are aware that CarePoint’s other operating companies are in default of their leases with the ownership of the HUMC and Christ real estate, in consequence of which the company has now lost its option to acquire the Christ real estate, and, accordingly, a further restructuring and workout with the landlord will be necessary to avoid potential forfeiture of the company’s tenancy of those facilities,” a letter from HRH attorney Thomas Abbate to the CarePoint Health board last night says.
“Please be advised that in order to avoid that potentially catastrophic consequence, we are pleased to report that we have now negotiated with the owner of the Christ real estate an exclusive option to acquire that property and have re-confirmed our continuing, executory contractual right to acquire the real estate associated with HUMC.”
This came roughly 36 hours after HRH offered to run the three CarePoint hospitals, Christ, the Hoboken University Medical Center, and Bayonne Medical Center, in light of CarePoint CEO Dr. Jawad Shah abruptly resigning, as HCV first reported.
Shah is also the CEO, president, and founder and Chicago-based Insight Health, who had a management agreement with CarePoint, which was also cancelled, less than three weeks after he was named to run the Hudson County hospital chain.
At one point, Alaris Health owner Avery Eisenreich held the land for all three CarePoint facilities, causing numerous Hudson County elected officials to hold a press conference in March 2020 asking him to stop holding up the sale of the hospitals.
Just three months later, CarePoint announced they were selling to BMC Hospital LLC.
However, nearly simultaneously, HRH said they had made their own offer, which came hours after announcing a $220 million deal with Eisenreich to acquire the BMC and HUMC deal.
Therefore, they would own all of the CarePoint hospital properties if they were able to acquire the remaining parcel in Jersey City.
“In acquiring the real estate, HRH would be stepping into the shoes of the current property owner and the relationship between HRH and the operating entities of HUMC and Christ would continue to be subject to the rights and obligations under the current leases until further notice,” Abbate also wrote on Tuesday.
“If, however, the Board accepts our pending offer to acquire the assets of HUMC and Christ, we believe that this strategy will once again reunite the operation of these facilities with ownership of the real estate. As we have repeatedly stated, it was a mistake for prior CarePoint ownership to divest itself of these real estate holdings, as it deprived the hospital system of the equity necessary to invest in its business.”
While CarePoint declined to comment on the letter and/or their next move, sources familiar with the situation, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said HRH is the frontrunner to run the three hospitals in Bayonne, Hoboken, and Jersey City.
No one would comment further, beyond saying that a formal announcement is expected sooner than later.
