The city of Hot Springs said it plans to seek bids soon for the demolition and abatement of the old St. Joseph’s Regional Health Center on Whittington Avenue. (old hospital pic not available)
Deputy City Manager Lance Spicer said things have changed since bids were last solicited for the demolition of a large city property. Taking down the remnants of the adjacent Majestic Hotel site cost the city’s solid waste fund $1.03 million in 2016, or about one-sixth of the expected cost of bringing down the former hospital complex.
Spicer estimated the abatement of abestos, lead paint and other hazardous materials found during 2024 and 2025 environmental assessments could cost as much as $2 million. About $4 million is the estimate for the demolition phase.
“It’s going to be a lot,” he said of the 2,900 loads of material the city estimates the demolition will yield. “This building is essentially twice the size of the Majestic.”
He said the amount of material the city’s solid waste department can haul off will affect the final price. The more it removes, the less it will have to pay the demolition contractor. The roughly 400,000 combined square feet of the infirmary and Pine and Cedar street wings are estimated to produce more than 18,000 cubic yards of concrete and masonry waste.
“If we are able to use city hauls to help offset some of that cost, that will be helpful,” Spicer said. “I don’t know if that’s something we’ll be able to do just because how busy construction development is across the city. I don’t know that we’ll be able to use the roll-off trucks. They’re not necessarily set up to do those kinds of hauls.”
He said the city would try to reuse brick and masonry material rather than landfilling it. Using it as clean fill in the former detention pond at Hot Springs Memorial Field is a possibility. Spicer said the pond was removed to guard against aircraft and waterfowl collisions.
He said the city wasn’t awarded the $783,510 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Cleanup Grant funds it applied for earlier this year to help with the abatement. It had been waiting to advertise the invitation to bid until the grant awards were announced earlier this summer.
According to the application, the seven-story infirmary building was built in 1927. It had served as the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts residence hall after the hospital moved to its current Werner Street location in 1991.
The city acquired the hospital site on Whittington Avenue for $300,000 in 1992. The purchase was made in expectation of ASMSA locating its campus in Hot Springs. The city began leasing the land to the school the following year.
Per the 2010 resolution donating land for the school’s Student Center, the city agreed to demolish the infirmary and its two wings. The resolution presumed the school would vacate the hospital complex by 2012, but the school didn’t give its notice of exit until May of last year. The complex had housed the school’s mechanical systems and faculty offices prior to then.
Bringing down the complex was one of the city’s largest unfunded liabilities until the Hot Springs Board of Directors set aside $4 million from the general fund. The city reported a more than $40 million general fund balance at the end of May.
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