Letter: Community needs more answers on potential sale of health care center
Editor’s note: Under state law, a good deal of information is not public while negotiations related to municipal deals are ongoing, though it is shared with those on the County Board.
To the Editor-
Portage County Executive John Pavelski and County Board Chair Al Haga are moving ahead at full speed to sell the Portage County Health Care Center (PCHCC), long called the “County Home,” to Sam (Shmuel) Follman, in spite of the long history of public support for the PCHCC.
Even if the public did support selling this property, the proposed sale would probably not be in the best interest of the taxpayers of Portage County for two reasons:
- Mr. Follman has a record of running very low quality nursing homes. In fairness, it could be that some ratings may have been extremely low when he purchased them, but he has apparently chosen to purchase another facility before the Medicare documented quality of care in his facilities is anywhere near the 5-star standard we have enjoyed here at the PCHCC. Waterfall in Wausau and Waterfall in Brown Deer are still rated at just 1-star.
- A study of the sale price of a comparable property suggests that the price offered is likely just a fraction of what the market value of this property could be on the open market.
What kind of research did Mr. Pavelski and Mr. Haga do to conclude that this is a fair price? Did they have an appraisal done? If so, why can’t the public see it?
I’ve been talking to brokers for just a few days in the hope of finding out whether Mr. Follman’s offer is fair.
Without an opportunity to walk through the building for a close inspection, a broker cannot see the condition or contents of the building, but they can compare this property to similar properties that have sold recently. The resulting comparison suggests that the purchase price offered by Mr. Follman is most likely very low.
Let me give you an example. A 47,000 square foot building on 4.59 acres on Coye Dr., in the industrial park recently sold for $2.85 million. That’s $60.63 per square foot, and it’s on less than 5 acres.
Compare that to our PCHCC, at roughly 82,000 square feet and 16 acres, in the city of Stevens Point. Mr. Follman’s offer of $1.8 million comes to $21.95 per square foot, even less, once you subtract the broker’s fee. One broker told me this price per square foot would be expected for an unheated pole building without a basement or insulation.
Of course, this is not an official appraisal, and the facility would need some repairs, but the comparable property, with less acreage, outside of the city, sold for almost three times as much. This disparity should raise some questions about the secretive sale process employed by the Pavelski/Haga team.
They want to sell a valuable County-owned asset, for what appears to be a fraction of its market value, to a buyer with a record of running low quality nursing homes, against the will of the public?
We should expect any County Supervisor who cares about fiscal responsibility to vote “No” on the resolution detailed in Item 6 of Tuesday’s County Board Agenda.
Members of the public can get contact information for your County Supervisor on the Portage County website. Supervisors are well aware that they come up for re-election on April 2.
Karlene Ferrante
Stevens Point
