Tuesday, October 22, 2024–11:16 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were in Rome Monday to present a check for $2 million for the cleanup of the former Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital property.
U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff announced the funding through the bipartisan infrastructure law in May.
The 132.5-acre former hospital campus has been in decline for several decades and it has been vacant since 2011. According to the EPA, the campus includes 57 vacant structures in various stages of deterioration, and several buildings have been contaminated with metals and contaminants.
The property was purchased by the Rome-Floyd County Development Authority from the State of Georgia in 2021. Now known as the Battey Business Center, the property is being marketed for industrial use with two industries already expressing interest.
During an interview earlier this month, Rome-Floyd County Development Authority President and CEO Missy Kendrick spoke about the plans for the property.
“It is considered a Brownfield site, which means it had previous development on site and potential hazardous materials on site,” she said. “We are going to bring down all but three, actually four of the buildings. One of the purchases from an existing industry includes one of the buildings. So of course we will sell that building with the property. We are also going to keep the chapel, which is on-site. We’re going to keep the pavilions which are on site, and make that available to the industries that locate there for employee gatherings that kind of thing.”
There are also plans to keep the gym.
“It is one of the largest buildings on the site and it’s pretty much in the middle of the site as well,” Kendrick said. We’re going to have a daycare center in that facility and if you have children of daycare age, you know how difficult it is to find daycare and how expensive it is. So, we’re going to have that as an incentive for industries to come in and make that daycare available to their employees.”
The site was one of only eight Brownfield sites funded through the infrastructure law this cycle.