Pardee chooses local doctors

Pardee Hospital will sell its 130-bed nursing and rehabilitation center to local doctors and an Ohio-based corporation.

The Pardee board of directors met in emergency session today and decided to sell the Pardee Care Center to Hendersonville Physicians and Associates.

The Care Center will fetch $8.45 million in the sale. Hendersonville Physicians also committed to $1 million in capital improvements at the center on the campus of Blue Ridge Community College.

The sale must receive approval from the Henderson County Board of Commissioners because the county owns the property. Commissioners should consider the sale Wednesday.

Hendersonville Physicians received late competition from a retirement corporation run by the Lutheran Church of North Carolina.

The Pardee board rejected an offer from Lutheran Services for the Aging because it did not meet legal requirements for an upset bid.

Hendersonville Physicians and Associates includes Doctors Larry J. Russell, Amal Das, Steven Lackey, Gail Clary and Lateef Abumoussa. It also includes local investors, Fletcher-based Ardent Health and Rehabilitation and Ohio-based Sprenger Retirement Centers.