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Old General Hospital sold, officials enter building to inspect conditions (4 photos)

South entrance door was wide open much of this week as officials tried to find new owner
David Helwig
David Helwig

The neglected former General Hospital site has a new owner.

Leisure Meadows Community Living Inc., based in Vaughan, Ont., bought the building on May 24 for an undisclosed price from Amit Sofer, president of TVM Group

Leisure Meadows is a subsidiary of Wilsondale Assets Management Inc., which has 2.5 million square feet of Southern Ontario office, retail/commercial, industrial properties and vacant development land including an 11-story commercial tower in St. Catharines and the 11-storey building that houses the Windsor office of Sutherland Global Services Inc.

Italo Ferrari, Wilsondale's founder and general manager, is in the Sault today for a property standards appeal related to the former hospital site.

The company signed a conditional agreement in January to purchase the Sault waterfront properties.

It now owns both the former General Hospital site and the former Plummer Hospital renal unit.

TVM Group picked up the property in 2013 for $65,000 and then renovated the former Plummer site into condominiums.
 
More recently, the waterfront buildings have fallen into serious disrepair and TVM has been fighting city-issued compliance orders requiring the remaining General site and former renal unit be properly maintained.
 
For much of this week, the General's south entrance has been wide open, allowing uninhibited access to the building.
 
As of last night, the entrance had been boarded up and a contractor was cutting grass on the property.
 
Previous testimony revealed that elevator doors inside the building had been pried open, with nothing to stop intruders from falling down the elevator shafts in the darkened structure.

A three-member appeal committee, comprised of Elizabeth Filice, Martin Poirer and Michael Szczepaniak, is resuming hearing the property standards appeal case today.

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