The Indian River County Hospital District Board of Trustees approved a three-year, free-rent lease with local nonprofit Thrive, paving the way for a new drug and alcohol addiction treatment service just outside the Vero Beach city limits.
Last week’s decision on the lease with purchase option is the latest move in a four-year saga which began with a goal of opening a women’s sober living home to fill an unmet need for those services in Indian River County. Taxpayers already support one men’s-only sober home.
The Hospital District did not develop a business plan or identify an operator for the women’s sober home before investing $4 million taxpayer dollars in an abandoned property at 620 and 650 10th Street, plus a quarter-million dollars in repairs and upkeep over the past 18 months. As a result, the new facility will not end up being a women’s sober home.
Trustees analyzed four proposals for the property and had the opportunity to sell the land and buildings outright to another applicant but decided that the concept pitched by Thrive offered the most value to the community.
Thrive’s planned dual-use model combines a 24-hour-a-day clearinghouse for anyone needing detox services or a stay in rehab – with Thrive staff finding a place for the patient to go – with temporary “respite housing” for adult men and women with substance abuse disorders.
Anyone who spent the previous night in Indian River County is eligible for treatment and referral services, so it’s possible the facility will attract drug- and alcohol-addicted people from out of county.
According to Thrive’s staff, the organization has secured an initial investment from John’s Island philanthropists. Thrive plans to use opioid settlement money for operational costs. Once the new center is up and running, it is likely Thrive will come back to the Hospital District asking for additional money on top of the free-rent situation.
The purpose of the free rent is to give Thrive time to raise the more than $4 million needed to purchase property from the district. The lease gives Thrive six months to customize the building for its purposes and have all core staff hired and trained.
The new facility must be open by Jan. 19, according to the lease. “Within 215 days of lease commencement Lessee shall commence operations of Centralized Intake and Recovery Housing services at the Leased Premises,” the document says.
Thrive has 24 months to decide if it will purchase the property. If Thrive opts not to purchase, taxpayers will need to reimburse the organization for certain approved structural repairs made to the property during the free-rent period.
The lease sets a minimum purchase price of $4.1 million – which falls short of what taxpayers currently have invested in the property – but includes a section explaining that the Hospital District trustees may reduce that price to reward Thrive for the program’s value.
“The District’s Board may, but shall not be obligated to, approve a reduction to the Fair Market Purchase Price, in such amount and upon such terms as the Board determines to be in the best interests of the District and the affected community,” the lease says.
Trustee Paul Westcott made a motion at last week’s meeting to remove the section about how the Hospital District might reduce the price, arguing that it was unnecessary and saddles future elected trustees with the expectation that they will cut Thrive a deal on the price. He said trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers to get a fair price.
“The purchase price, until the check is signed and the closing has occurred, is always going to be negotiable, whether you like it or not,” Westcott said. “[But] we’re building into this agreement … a presumption, whether we like it or not, Thrive is going to have a superior negotiating position when the time comes. They will have established their program, and it will be important to the district and to what we’re doing.”
Westcott, a trial attorney and civil mediator, has consistently urged the Hospital District to be smarter about protecting itself and the taxpayers in its legal proceedings, and to avoid all ambiguity in contracts.
Dr. Wayne Creelman, who ran unopposed for a hospital district seat and will take office in January, spoke from the public podium echoing Westcott’s concern that the clause puts pressure on future decision makers to reduce the price. But one of the district’s attorneys, Dana McNally, countered that the clause somehow protects the future trustees, and Westcott’s motion died for lack of a second.
