Mercy to buy Riverview
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Mercy Health System is expected to buy the soon-to-be-vacant Riverview Clinic building from Dean Health System in April.
JANESVILLE — The Riverview Clinic building won't be empty long after Dean Health System staff in January move into the new St. Mary's Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East on East Racine Street.
Dean and Mercy Health System on Friday announced that Mercy will buy Riverview Clinic and much of the surrounding property at 580 Washington St. in Janesville.
The health systems expect to close the deal in April. They have agreed not to share the cost of the sale until after closing, said Rich Gruber, Mercy's vice president of community advocacy.
The addition of a 110,000-square-foot building will allow Mercy to relocate offices, President and CEO Javon Bea wrote in a news release. Mercy is evaluating the building and has no specific plans at this time, Gruber said.
The Riverview Clinic is adjacent to the Mercy campus, and the two health systems already have a complicated agreement about ownership of the land around the clinic, Gruber said.
Mercy owns the land underneath the clinic proper, but Dean owns the property under the balance of the facilities, including a conference center and an ambulatory services center, he said.
A parking lot to the north across North River Street from the clinic also belongs to Dean, he said.
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Dec 27, 2011 at 8:32 a.m.
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Maybe they can turn the building into a decent Psychiatric hospital. Now that Rock County doesn't have a psych unit for people in the community, it seeems like there is a need. God knows the 5th floor psychiatric unit at Mercy is a mess. How can anybody get better when it looks like they are in a prison? There is nothing to do; there aren't enough social workers to run programs for people to get better. It is really awful.
Dec 24, 2011 at 9:47 a.m.
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wahoo, your comment is not only misinformed it's also offensive. Personally I'm glad some one has found a use for the facility. That's a much better option than having it sit there empty and deteriorating.
Dec 24, 2011 at 8:46 a.m.
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Mercy currently houses many of its office, tech support and insurance personnel on an east side, off-campus site. I would imagine they are going to move a lot of those things to the Riverview site. The addition of conference space adjacent to the hospital would also be beneficial. So while I'm sure the purchase price is high, some will probably be offset by not renting other facilities. Oh - and Mercy gets "all this money" by providing medical services to people of the community -the way every other business in town makes money. Being a non-profit, any positive balance needs to be re-invested into growing their business.
Dec 24, 2011 at 6:04 a.m.
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wahoo what an uneducated comment, no healthcare provider transfers people so they dont "die" in the system. And Mercy hasnt closed the hospice program, get your facts straight. They closed the ride program because not enough people were using it but they still offer, hospice, options, a homeless shelter, all free for those in need, how many of those does Dean offer?
Dec 23, 2011 at 10:54 p.m.
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Where does Mercy get all this money? It was not long ago they had to close Hospice and providing rides to the eldery because of costs, makes you wonder what else they hide. Maybe the fact that they transport patiences that they know will die to other hospitals so they can say they did not die in Mercy care.
Dec 23, 2011 at 8:01 p.m.
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maybe javon bea needs a bigger apartment?
Dec 23, 2011 at 7:33 p.m.
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That makes sense, but seriously, what will they use it for?
Dec 23, 2011 at 7:21 p.m.
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I did wonder why Dean changed its mind; their first announcement was that the facility would stay open, then when formal move materials went out everyone was going to the east side.
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Somebody also told me recently "Mercy owns Riverview", and I suppose this is what they really meant.
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