Overview
Land preparation work continues. Crews are redistributing rubble and reuse materials to raise and flatten the land. Columbus Regional Health is moving forward with our facility and site plans to build a multi-specialty medical office building on a portion of the property, with the goal of having services in place in 2024.
Background
The Clarion hotel went bankrupt and closed in 2018. The property was then made available via a public auction. This land was one of the first larger property investments CRH made in order to position our health system for necessary growth, expansion of services and access for the ever-growing west side of Bartholomew County.
The hotel was in such poor state that it was demolished. You may recall that following the initial purchase of the property, we donated the majority of the former hotels contents to area non-profit agencies as a way to give back to the community.
Columbus Regional Health has been diligent in how that property is cleaned up and positioned for future development. This has added time but it is our priority to be good stewards of that land as we consider future uses of this site and how it can benefit economic growth. We have attempted to be environmentally-friendly as we work with this site and have been able to incorporate the reuse of rubble and construction waste from Interstate 65 projects as fill to help elevate the site out of the flood risk. Likewise, in working with the Army Corps of Engineers, we are replacing the displaced trees and surrounding wetlands at a 4-to-1 ratio.
