Ohio Valley Medical Center to be raised and replaced with WVU Medicine Cancer Center
- City of Wheeling to donate parcels of land to WVU Medicine after OVMC is demolished
- Demolition will take 6 months to 1 year
- WVU Medicine to construct $70 million Cancer Center in 5 years on former OVMC site
- WVU Medicine now dominates the local medical landscape after adding most area hospitals to its Health System
The City of Wheeling, WV, who acquired Ohio Valley Medical Center from Medical Properties Trust of Wheeling-Alecto LLC in 2020, will hand the property over to West Virginia University Medicine potentially by the end of this year.
In October WVU Medicine and Wheeling announced plans to demolish the OVMC campus and build a new $70 million cancer center. The construction will take about 5 years.
It is estimated to take between 6 months to 1 year to raze the hospital buildings and the city owned parking garage across the street.
OVMC opened its doors in 1892 as City Hospital and later changed to Ohio Valley General Hospital. Then in 1973 the name was changed again to Ohio Valley Medical Center.
In September, 2019 OVMC closed when the hospital’s financial troubles were no longer tenable. At the time, around 800 people were employed by MPT who had purchased the hospital in June of 2017.
The City of Wheeling acquired the OVMC campus in 2020 after MPT offered to transfer ownership of the property for closing costs and any back taxes, which amounted to about $1 million. The property is valued around $40 million.
Wheeling will be donating the parcels of land to WVU Medicine after demolition is complete and the site is prepared for construction. Demolition is estimated to cost between $7 million and $9 million. WVU Medicine will pay $3 million of the cost, and the City of Wheeling and Ohio County will pay $4 million.
Other monies are being secured by the City as a safety net through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loan/grant and also for asbestos removal.
WVU Medicine now dominates the area’s medical landscape with the majority of the area’s hospitals becoming members of the West Virginia University Health System starting around 2020.
Under the WVU Medicine umbrella are Barnesville Hospital and Harrison Community Hospital in Ohio, Wetzel County Hospital, Wheeling Hospital and Reynolds Memorial Hospital in West Virginia and soon the former OVMC site will be a regional cancer center.
