Agency is seeking bids on contract to build a clinic; former SRMC site mentioned as possibility

PETERSBURG – The Department of Veterans Affairs has confirmed it is considering a new healthcare clinic for the city, but a department spokeswoman stressed the process is still in its infancy.

“The Richmond VA Medical Center is soliciting proposals to lease space for a new community-based outpatient clinic that would be located in the Petersburg area,” VA Spokeswoman Ndidi Mojay said in an email. “The clinic would be in addition to Richmond’s four existing outpatient clinics in Charlottesville, Emporia and Fredericksburg and would provide outpatient primary care, mental health, telehealth and some limited specialty services to Veterans.”

The leading candidate for the possible clinic location appears to be the former site of Southside Regional Medical Center at 801 S. Adams St. That property has been vacant ever since SRMC moved to its current location off Wagner and South Crater roads in the city’s southern end several years ago.

Construction Managers Inc. of Goldsboro, N.C. recently approached Petersburg to purchase the SRMC site with the goal of building a medical facility and leasing it to the VA. The purchase, however, is contingent upon CMI getting the contract to build the clinic.

The North Carolina construction management firm has spent the past 10 years building 14 similar VA facilities. It built four VA clinics in its home state, then 10 more stretching from Florida to North Dakota.

The request for bid, or RFB, from the VA expresses interest in leasing 19,000 to 19,950 “square feet of medical office space in the Petersburg, Virginia delineated area.” The VA said in that ad that it requires a five-year term on a full-services lease with an additional five years option.

The ad also says that the VA would consider space in an existing facility, in addition to a new construction.

A timeline is yet to be finalized for awarding the contract and activating the facility.

A VA survey from 2017 found that Prince George, Petersburg and Colonial Heights all have between 9.5% and 16.3% veterans among the total population. That is the highest density category in that survey. Virginia has the eighth highest veteran population among U.S. states.

Last week, Petersburg City Council voted to enter into negotiations with CMI over the company’s proposed purchase agreement. If the sale goes through, CMI would have a due diligence period of 30-120 days.

Reginald Tabor, the city’s economic development manager, stressed that any deal with CMI is based on the firm being the successful bidder for the clinic contract.

“During that time we will negotiate a development agreement, that will include the scope, the estimated cost, the sources of funding and the uses of funding for the project, and also a schedule,” Tabor said.

That development agreement would be given to City Council for final approval.

Tabor also said he would be hopeful that a VA medical facility in Petersburg could provide a level of economic growth.

“The proposed purchaser stated in a document that in other similar developments that they have been involved with, those clinics have spurred additional related development,” Tabor said. “We anticipate that would be the same here, and we are hopeful that that would be the case.”

CMI’s proposed purchase agreement includes the entire 24-acre former hospital site.

Sean Jones can be reached at sjones@progress-index.com or 804-722-5172.