Up in smoke: Mooroopna Hospital ablaze in 2010.
Photo by
Bethanie Sessions
More than a decade after fire ripped through the historic building, the former Mooroopna Hospital is set for a rejuvenation.
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The main hospital building had been earmarked for an aged care facility when it was destroyed by a suspicious fire in 2010. A demolition permit was sought for the historic building after the fire but it was rejected following an engineer’s report that found 70 per cent of the 1880s building was still sound.
In 2013 the property was advertised as a ‘realisation sale’ on instructions from the private mortgagee, and it has been on and off the market ever since.
Rocky Gagliardi, from Gagliardi Scott Real Estate, has now finally slapped a sold sticker on the site.
Destruction: A view from above shows the damage caused by the fire, but an engineeer later reported 70 per cent of the 1880s building was intact, saving it from demolition.
Photo by
Bethanie sessions
“It has just exchanged unconditionally,” Mr Gagliardi said.
A regional developer purchased the property in January and settlement will now allow for work to start on the site, which had become such an eyesore it prompted Cr Rob Priestly to initiate a system of punitive rates for derelict buildings.
“Certain parts of the site are already earmarked for commercial development and the purchaser certainly has the capability of developing the site,” Mr Gagliardi said.
“Council has been really good with making sure something can happen with the site; I’ve had it on and off for seven years, so it has been a frustrating run.”
The land was part of a much larger multi-development site that started to fall apart during stage one.
All is not lost: With the sale comes new hope that the former hospital can be redeveloped.
Photo by
Bethanie Sessions Bethanie Sessi
About $12 million was spent converting the old nurses’ quarters into 67 apartments, but the developers ran into problems selling them because the building sits on land subject to inundation during flooding.
The apartments were acquired in a forced sale and converted to public housing.
The historic main hospital building was still slated to become a nursing home when it was badly damaged by a fire on January 9, 2010.
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