Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said the city should have an agreement in place for Baptist Health Care to donate its old Moreno hospital campus – as well as a cost estimate for demolishing unused campus facilities – by early next year.
During a regular press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Reeves gave a projected timeline for the next steps in the city’s planned acquisition of the Baptist hospital property , which entails the city taking ownership of approximately 36 acres around E and Moreno streets and using them to provide affordable housing.
Reeves said the city plans to be as “aggressive as is reasonable” in its timeline for moving forward.
“Even though this isn’t our property, and it certainly is not the obligation of the city to demolish this property or take on this bandwidth, this time, energy – it’s not a city obligation, but it is an obligation in the sense of how we make sure that every neighborhood in our community is respected,” Reeves said.
Discussing the timeline for the project, Reeves said this month the city plans to issue a request for qualifications for potential demolition contractors, which will essentially establish a pool of companies with the qualifications and capacity necessary to take on a demolition project of this scope.