Carson City supervisors agreed on Thursday to buy Carson-Tahoe Hospital's soon-to-be-vacated 26,000-square-foot rehabilitation center for $4.5 million.
The city will use the building, which the hospital is leaving for a move into the Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, to consolidate its social services and public health departments, along with nonprofits such as the Carson City Community Counseling Center, into one location.
The counseling center, which pays the $6,000 a month for office space, receives additional space for its detoxification unit free of charge. The city has an agreement with the substance-abuse treatment center to provide space for the detox unit for the next 15 years. The building that currently houses the program is slated for demolition to make room for a new sheriff's office.
The upper floors of the rehab center, which are already set up for hospital-like rooms conducive for substance-abuse treatment, will be used for detox while the bottom two floors will be offices for the city and any social service-oriented groups willing to rent them.
City officials estimate office space rentals could bring in $75,000 a year, helping to pay off the building.
The sale also frees up a vacant lot adjacent to the building.
The lot, originally deeded to the city by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, can only be for social service or health-related use. With the hospital relocating, the city has decided to use the land to expand a new affordable senior citizen apartment complex called Autumn Village.
The hospital plans to vacate the rehab center building by the middle of December and the city plans on moving in by February 2006.
