***MissouriCityChatter Exclusive: Christus Cancels Project for New Hospital in Sienna/Missouri City?***
--It seems only a few months ago that the developers of Sienna Plantation were celebrating along with Mayor Allen Owen of Missouri City over the 2005 deal bringing a new hospital to Missouri City to be located in Sienna Plantation along with up to 2700 apartments apparently needed to house future employees. At least that was one of the reasons given by city council members supporting the apartment proposal against much local opposition.
See October internal announcement by Johnson Development Co. of Houston from SiennaNet.com (which is still up on the website):
“Sienna/Johnson Developer Update
Christus HealthCare in Sienna (10/01/05)
CHRISTUS Health Gulf Coast recently announced that architectural plans are underway to develop a full-service healthcare facility at Highway 6 and Sienna Parkway. The facility will provide services that focus on women’s care, pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics, and sports medicine.
CHRISTUS Health System is one of the top 10 Catholic healthcare systems in the country. Construction is scheduled to begin in winter 2006.”
--And the recent mayoral candidates release from Owen touting this new addition to our community as recently as two weeks ago from FortBendNow.com:
“Continuing to implement a plan that hopefully will reduce property taxes and replace them with sales taxes – that comes from commercial and retail growth, a college campus, and a future hospital and medical complex that are attracted by successful residential developments,” Owen’s campaign statement says.
--Well folks, apparently, and according to very reliable hospital sources, the deal was put on hold several months ago and may be cancelled. At the quarterly Johnson Development Co. update meeting in Sienna it was announced a little over a week ago that the deal had fallen through. Apparently city officials have yet to hear about it with no official comment as of yet.
What will this mean for Missouri City, which is losing Herman Memorial Hospital soon, and the 70,000 residents of this community who were promised this facility by developers and city officials repeatedly to sooth the outrage over the planned apartment units in 2005?
Why was Mayor Owen still releasing the information on the hospital as if it was still coming only two weeks ago in a campaign release when his major developer and campaign backers already knew months before that it was off the table?
Many questions remain unresolved and we will follow this story as it progresses.
Stay informed and keep in touch!—CRD
-as always confirm these releases through original sources (either the developer, the hospital or the city) for verification purposes…
posted by responsible_dvlpmnt at Monday, April 03, 2006
19 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This is a disaster for the city!
whatever happened to the Walgreens that was built and never opened at the corner or Lake Harbor and Hwy 6 at Vicksburg? The building is just standing empty and now there is a new CVS going up. Crazy!
This is what happens when the developers run the city and not the other way around. . . ;-)
It's my understanding that they built it and then decided to wait until a traffic light went up there. I have no idea if they still plan on doing that since CVS is building on our corner now. You know that lights don't just go up, they wait until many accidents occurr before they even do a study on it. Don't have any idea if they are even planning a traffic light at this time. Will be interesting to see if Walgreens changes their mind with CVS close to opening.
The Walgreens building doesn't have anything to do with developers. It's a business decision and I would believe that the traffic light is so the little ol people don't get killed in the traffic.
Actually, who cares about the Walgreens. Johnson Development has been misleading us over the past year. Where is the Grocery Store that they promised? What are we going to do without a hospital in the area? And now, we are stuck with these lovely apartments!
I guess many of us could move into the apts. so they don't fail . . . ;-)
You all may want to follow the evolving district 22 race (Delay's old seat--he's moving and pulling out of the race--going to Virginia to be a lobbyist) at Fortbendnow.com.
Early voting guides (from FBNow.com):
Fort Bend County voters may cast early ballots for any reason, at any of the 10 below locations thorughout the county:
Rosenberg Annex Building (4520 Reading Road)
Missouri City, City Hall (1522 Texas Parkway)
Garcia Middle School (18550 Old Richmond Road)
Fulshear Precinct 3 Building (8100 F.M. 359)
Hightower High School (3333 Hurricane Lane)
University of Houston at Cinco Ranch (4242 S. Mason Road)
First Colony Conference Center (3232 Austin Parkway)
Meadows Place City Hall (One Troyan Drive)
Old Needville Fire House (3115 Richmond St.)
Chasewood Clubhouse (7622 Chasewood)
Early voting polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Any registered voter in the county who did not vote in the county primary election on March 7 is eligible to vote in either the Democratic or Republican runoff election. However, if a voter voted in the Republican primary, that voter can only vote in the Republican runoff, and vice versa.
Identification is required in order to vote early or on election day. Voters should be prepared to show their voter registration certificate or some other type of identification before voting. First-time voters who registered to vote by mail must show one item of identification other than their voter registration certificate.
I wonder if the CVS will pull out with the hospital gone?
It looks like SJD is issuing "damage control" as usual and blaming residents for the information, or lack of information issues. They pulled the October post featured on Siennanet.com today and replaced it with their own spin on this situation. For those of you that don't have access to our internal developer-controlled website here it is in all its splendor:
Sienna/Johnson Developer News
Christus Information Update – 04/04/06
The following information has been submitted directly to SPRAI from Michael Smith, General Manager, Sienna/Johnson Development.
It has been falsely reported by a resident in the community that the “Christus Hospital deal has fallen through.”
Sienna/Johnson has spoken with Christus Healthcare and these are the facts:
* Christus owns the 36 acre site near the entrance of Sienna Plantation. Therefore, there was no deal to be made with the development or the City. Contractually, they have until 2008 to start any construction on their site. The start date is at their discretion. Christus reported, in 2005, that they would like to break ground in early 2006, but they are now telling Sienna and the City that they are delayed.
* Christus officials told Sienna that they have decided to put a hold on the construction of the Hospital facility while they re-evaluate the medical and professional building options on the remainder of their tract.
* Christus officials have confirmed that the project is merely on hold and has not be terminated at this time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sienna/Johnson Developer Update -- March 21, 2006
Presentation Notes from the Developer Update held on Tuesday, March 21 at Scanlan Oaks Elementary.
Power Point Slide presentation from the Developer Update meeting on Tuesday, March 21 at Scanlan Oaks Elementary.
The Question and Answer period that night was not recorded; therefore no transcripts of that portion of the evening are available.
___________
Follow-up comment: I wonder if they actually read the release here on MissouriCityChatter. None-the-less this pattern of delayed posting of information and then attempting to correct "misinformation" hasn't changed and is consistently easy to document. So I guess no fundamental change in their communications pattern is forthcoming.
Once again we stand by this post as the information was gathered from several different reliable sources. As always ck the original sources. Regardless of who said what to whom it is apparent that the Christus Hospital issues is an important one to Missouri City and this information on the delay, reconsideration, postponement or whatever they choose to call it is something the community deserves to know about.
Stay informed and keep in touch!-CRD
Interesting unrelated comment from a poster on FBNow.com:
9 William but you can call me "Bill" - Apr 4, 08:22 pm
I have a very difficult time believing that Tom Delay did not just stick one to the Republican voters of District 22. He has an excellent team of criminal defense attorneys representing him. I find this very humorous that he hired a team of attorneys who are well known as Democrats to represent him. Degurien and Dixon have publicly stood against everything Delay has stood for, for the past two decades. These two attorneys were at the front of the Branch Davidian defense. There is no way they were caught by surprise buy any government deals cut to prosecute Delay. It is just very funny that Delays liberty depends on two men whom he has berated for years. They defend the constitution when they defend Delay. The very constitution that Delay has helped destroy over the past 15 years.
I will never believe that Delay did not know this was coming back in December or even earlier. That he deliberately mislead those of us in the Republican Party. Personally I see him promoting David Wallace behind the scene. Both Wallace and Delay along with Allen Owen and John Healey are financed by Will and Bob Perry of Perry Homes. I also will never believe that some deal was cut so that John Healey would refuse to take the State Election Code charges in Fort Bend County. I further believe that the Perrys are chest deep in this. I see them as the Great Oz in this.
This little stunt has denied those of us who live in District 22 from voting for our congressional candidate in the Republican Primary. It makes the primary look like a fraud on the voters. I view this as a trick to allow the Republican Party to hand pick his replacement. To me this is a worst crime than those for which he has been or will be indicted. In his recorded press release he said he only cared about the people in his district. I am sorry, but that statement is just unbelievable. David Wallace has been campaigning for a few days now for your spot and it is very clear that he got a heads up from you on this
MR. DELAY, YOU AND YOUR TEAM FROM PERRY HOMES HAVE PULLED OFF YOUR GREATEST FRAUD AGAINST THOSE OF US IN YOUR DISTRICT. I BELIEVE THAT YOUR ENTIRE CAMPAIN DURING THE PRIMARY WAS A TOTAL LIE.
FOR ME, YOU CANNOT MOVE OUT OF FORT BEND COUNTY FAST ENOUGH. DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT.
Hi JK, DG, LJ+
From what I understand, there will be a Super Wal-mart at the same intersection as the Walgreens. Apparently they already closed on the land. As far as the grocery store is concerned, HEB moved to be at the corner of Hwy 6 and the Fort Bend Tollway.
How can this be confirmed anon (minutes, notes, etc?)?
Update to this thread:
According to the 3/21/06 SJD/JDC Developer Meeting notes that weren't released or posted until April/06 they are claiming that they were notified only in February 2006 of the planned postponement of the new Christus Hospital because of a physician survey that indicated disinterest in a facility at Sienna (at this time). Of course this is bad news for Missouri City which is losing its only hospital (Memorial Hermann) soon. Further, according to this piece, Christus mgmt is now looking at plans to "start with the private medical office buildings on site first" to build demand for the hospital (we have been unable to confirm this last statement by SJD/JDC).
-Of course our question is how long will it take to build this "demand" and how long will Missouri City be with out a hospital???
-Additional question- If the hospital knew about the lack of demand by medical personnel in '05 why did we find out about it so late through our developer?
-Is the hospital planning to exercise the buy-back option with SJD/JDC on or before 2008?
-Would be nice if Christus, Mayor Owen and/or SJD/JDC could answer these questions given their press releases using this hospital for PR purposes and as an excuse for the approval of up to 2700 apts. coming to our area last year.
Found this release on FBNow.com (posted in July '05):
My how the information changes on this thingy--
Christus Health Gulf Coast Medical Facility
by FortBendNow Staff, Jul 20, 06:27 am
Christus Health Gulf Coast has begun planning and design for the first phase of a medical complex, to be located at the southeast corner of Sienna Parkway and Highway 6, according to developers.
Meritage Homes of Texas said the first phase of the Christus project is expected to include a full-scale hospital with about 100 beds and an 80,000-square-foot medical office building.
The second phase of the complex will add up to 200 more patient beds and full hospital services, including X-ray and OB-GYN services, Meritage said. More than 350 full-time employees are expected to work at the facility when the first phase opens in about two years.
Here's comment updates with the original article:
Christus Puts Hospital Plans On Ice At Sienna Plantation
by Bob Dunn, Wednesday April 12, 2006
Uncertainty in the medical marketplace has caused Christus Health Gulf Coast to put plans on hold for a hospital and 80,000-square-foot medical office building in Sienna Plantation.
Formed in 1999 as a result of the merger of two Catholic charities, Christus had plans last summer to build a 100-bed hospital employing 350 people, and eventually to expand it to add 200 more patient beds and full medical services, according to home builders at Sienna Plantation.
Groundbreaking originally was expected this year. But Christus now has put plans on hold to review changes in the marketplace, and hasn’t yet decided on when the project will proceed or whether it will be built as originally conceived, said Julia Fetzer, Christus regional vice president for planning and development.
“We’re reviewing it every few months,” she said of the project and the rapidly changing medical scene in Fort Bend County.
Among other things, Christus has heard rumors that St. Lukes intends to locate a hospital in Sugar Land.
And Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital, a $93 million, 220,000-square-foot project, broke ground a year ago at the northwest corner of the U.S. 59 – Grand Parkway intersection. The Methodist Hospital system also is expanding in the county.
“We take a look at all of them,” Fetzer said of potential competing medical projects. “What the issue is, what the opportunity is, what the threat is.”
Christus owns 36 acres at the southeast corner of Sienna Parkway and Highway 6, the site for its proposed hospital. Fetzer said the healthcare organization has an agreement, running through 2008, with Siennta Plantation allowing Christus to be the only hospital services provider in the community.
However, she said the fact the agreement runs through 2008 would have no bearing on the timing of the hospital project.
Christus recently agreed to sell its Christus St. Joseph Hospital in downtown Houston to Hospital Partners of America, of Charlotte, N.C. The deal is expected to close in June.
1 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - Apr 12, 02:06 pm
Some questions that should be asked about this indefinite hospital postponement and cancellation of the construction start:
-Why has it taken several months for the news to be released to the public? Christus apparently knew about this since the end of last year and the developers (Owen’s #2 contributor over the last 5 years) claim they’ve known since February and only released it on the Sienna internal website, which the rest of Missouri City doesn’t have access too, two weeks ago.
-Why was this critical information not released in a timely manner by our mayor and council so that the public could be protected and make appropriate healthcare choices in our community? Especially considering the hoopla last year when the Mayor and developer took bows for “bringing it here” and using it as one justification for the up to 2700 apartments injected into our neighborhood and city.
-Is the council now going to reconsider the Johnson Development apartments that will negatively impact our community?
-Is the city and our developer going to change their habit of not keeping the public informed on critical issues like this?
-What are residents going to do during events like Rita without a local hospital Mr. Mayor?
-etc. . .
2 Matthew Feinberg - Apr 12, 06:40 pm
Why is there still a sign on Sienna Pky saying the hospital is comming soon? Isn’t that a little misleading?
3 John Armstrong - Apr 12, 06:57 pm
Well, I don’t know this ‘Miss Leading’ person that Matthew is referring to but, must be the same spoke person for the 2700 apartments.
4 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - Apr 12, 07:25 pm
Matthew,
How about the name on the blvd. next to the indefinitely postponed hospital, Sienna-Christus. Oh here’s some interesting news. The developer, through our developer controlled HOA board (known as the SPRAI) in coordination with our Sienna schools, is hosting a candidates meeting here in SP on April 24th. Apparently it has been reported that questions will be taken from the community beforehand and given to the candidates (no open mic questions?). A very controlled event. A group calling themselves “Concerned Parents of FB County” jointly headed up by an SJD developer employee is helping with this event. Does this group qualify as a legitimate grass-roots group or a subverted developer PAC?
I wonder who our developer is backing in this one? I better check those contribution reports. You know they backed the former incumbent (Mr. Bain) whose seat is now open. Some of the candidates have sworn-off this funding. So far they are Steve Dieu, Liz Mitton, Rodrigo Carreon. I wonder if Smelley and some of the others will take the pledge on this one.
It would be nice to see more candidates take this oath (no out of area special interest funding or vendor funding or gifts in kind). Of course if too many take this oath the political-industry may be in trouble. Honesty hurts, right?
5 maized&cornfused - Apr 12, 09:50 pm
The Concerned parents group is just that. Not all of the parents are from Sienna. There have been other “meet the canidate” events/opportunities posted on their site the SJD is not the first. I don’t know why it shouldn’t be considered a grass roots efforts is there a certain criteria?
Please give these parents some credit for trying to make the schools better. I don’t a see conspiracy and if there is one I am sure Bob will report about it-so will you on your website.
6 MoCityResident - Apr 13, 05:53 am
I have to throw my two cents in on this one. What the hell are so many residents in this area going to do without emergency care and for how long?
7 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - Apr 13, 07:03 am
Well maized, the problem comes when the SJD employee who participates/leads this group presents before the school board incomplete information. For example, at a recent board meeting discussing the zoning and over-crowding issues at Baines MS, this SJD employee used developer generated data to emphasize their points and counter the districts data. During this presentation the SJD employee (PTO president and one of the leaders of this CPFB group) left out, misinformed, the real data on the zoning buster up to 2700 apartments being brought here, which her employer pushed on this community against popular consent. Not only was that information withheld (a conflict of interest) they didn’t mention that this area has more multi-family coming in the South Sienna area (further complicating the zoning picture).
All the facts should be presented as well as the relationships pointed out. I believe you maized are using the word “conspiracy” selectively for a purpose. I would suggest using a word like political-business relationships. The interplay of words does impact how a story is viewed and I think Bob, in this story on the hospital (and most of his work), is much more balanced than what we are used to in this community. If you view his intro video available here on the site you will see how he reduces and feels about the impact of ad pressure on reporting, which is a well documented fact in the research literature.
8 - - Apr 13, 12:27 pm
Bob,
What does this mean below? Do you have anymore information on this statement:
“Fetzer said the healthcare organization has an agreement, running through 2008, with Siennta Plantation allowing Christus to be the only hospital services provider in the community.”
9 Bob Dunn - Apr 13, 02:17 pm
My understanding is that until 2008, Christus has the exclusive right to build a hospital at Sienna.
I don’t think this would be an unusual incentive to include in an agreement for a commercial entity in a master-planned community.
It protects the commercial entity, in this case a hospital operator, from immediate competition.
10 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - May 23, 03:23 pm
“I don’t think this would be an unusual incentive to include in an agreement for a commercial entity in a master-planned community.
It protects the commercial entity, in this case a hospital operator, from immediate competition.” Bob D.
Apparently Hermann Hospital in Mo-City owns the current hospital and building. At the April Missouri City Council session it was announced that Hermann will not lease out the old hospital building as a future hospital. Combine this with the competition limiting agreement above and post-ponement, we see a community being put at health risk because two Houston area hospitals want to limit area competition.
Something is wrong here and why aren’t our local officials doing anything about it, with hurricane season approaching? Well Mr. Owen?
11 Mary McClure - May 23, 05:23 pm
Christus said the hurricane was the reason for the postponement. Is Owen responsible for the hurricane? If you are so anxious for the hospital, don’t you know almost every hospital needs apts. for residents, etc.?
12 Mary McClure - May 23, 08:28 pm
...excuse me, I meant hurricanes (plural) and one of the reasons, not the reason—based on something I read.
13 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - May 24, 06:28 am
The point of the post may have been missed. This community very soon will be entering the hurricane season with an indefintely post-poned hospital and one that is closing. Lack of planning didn’t seem to be a concern of the Mayor in announcing the new hospital start date, but they did take their time letting the public know when that date had been cancelled.
Since many families in this area including Fresno, Arcola, Stafford, Missouri City, etc. rely on the current hospital it is the public health that is at risk now. The public had a right to know so they can make plans for emergencies. The developers, the city and the hospitals were involved in this deal as per the Developers Agreement and are obligated to keep the public informed on these issues (especially our elected officials)!
14 Rubikees - May 24, 08:27 am
True Dr. Calvin, the worse part of the whole thing is that I really do not think our officials are ready for a Katrina type storm cutting through this area. One thing people have overlooked besides the storm surge is that up north the Conroe and Livingston dams were damaged by Rita and have not been fully repaired yet. Think the unthinkable and with Conroe’s outflow entering Lake Houston… This worse case scenario in a metro area of over 2 million could be far larger than the Katrina crisis.
15 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - May 24, 09:15 am
Rubikees,
I know Rita & Katrina, along with the Houston floods a few years ago from just a tropical storm would have kept our public officials more vigilant and willing to be more transparent, but it seems obvious from recent events that taking care of their cronies is what matters most. The public must fend for themselves I guess. In the community in which I reside they still only have one major exit out of here and it dumps onto the clogged evacuation route on hwy 6. Not much of an option if we’re poorly informed. . .
16 Mary McClure - May 24, 10:35 am
In Sienna, I can exit off these roads: Trammel Fresno (sp?), Watts Plantation, and McKeever (maybe more I don’t know about). Last time I looked there was a bridge past Sienna Crossing off the jogging path for pedestrian evacuation (I assume) also. At an update mtg. I attended, it was stated emergency services would be available at both Christus and Memorial Hermann despite the hospital postponement (from my understanding).
17 Mary McClure - May 24, 11:07 am
Excuse me, ...& of course, I can exit off the main parkway also! Btw, these roads are on the right side (exiting Sienna) off the pkwy. by the main entrance.
18 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - May 24, 11:16 am
“At an update mtg. I attended, it was stated emergency services would be available at both Christus and Memorial Hermann despite the hospital postponement (from my understanding).”
That would be quite a trick if Hermann at hwy6 is closed and Christus hasn’t broken ground. You may want to check the information source on that again (if it’s the one I’m thinking of).
As for the one exit out of Sienna, only Sienna Pkwy until you get to McKeever Rd (nothing out of South Sienna, since the road isn’t finished). Last year during the Rita scare the service road exit wasn’t posted until the day before. If anyone had taken it they would have found a road block South on 521 and would have had to turn around back to hwy 6. Additionally all the roads mentioned in your post end up on the same hurricane evacuation route that was backed up all day. Not a plausible plan, nor very confidence inspiring and at least, in this scenario, there is still no nearby hospital.
Try again.
19 Sienna Resident - May 24, 12:53 pm
Mary, all of those roads dump onto 6…a major evacuation route. During the Rita evacuation, it took 90 minutes to get from Sienna to Oilfield Road. We are not in horrible shape, by any means. However, as we grow with more homes and apartments, that will create additional congestion.
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