Expanding Institutional Boundaries: Laurelon, Talaris, Springbrook and Hartman

The Hospital predicts that its space needs will continue to grow rapidly after this newest round of expansion. Since Hospital insists on keeping all in-patient services in one place, what happens after its buildings rise to 240 feet?

Clearly, the hospital has a plan: expansion of institutional boundaries across 136 condos and who-knows-what else. So much for the city's guidance, as reported by the hospital: "the redevelopment of residential areas for institutional uses is discouraged as a matter of City policy."

The Hospital's intentions for Laurelon (see "Sought" in the picture below) and the Hartman site (see "Owned") have been made clear. The hospital also owns a partial stake in the Springbrook building (see "Partially Owned"). It has been busily expanding into this space and pushing out professionals serving surrounding communities. Many former tenants provided medical services at walkable distances from nearby communities.
Don't forget that the Talaris property is "Available." You can draw your own conclusions. Yeah, current covenants prevent a major institution from buying the property outright, but there are ways around that hurdle. For example, a donor group could purchase the site in the hospital's place and "lease" it out, perhaps as the site of a new parking garage.

We also can't leave out the hospital's recent purchase of surrounding homes (see "Home Purchases" for the general locations). The hospital recently told the PSBJ that it is making these purchases to buy the silence of potential objectors to its plans. Two purchases have closed already, a third is rumored to be close, and others have been discussed. These purchases may not expand the institutional boundaries, but they certainly seem contrary to the purpose of the Major Institution Planning process.