Former St. John's school eyed for new health hub
The former MacPherson school could get a new life as a one-stop shop of sorts for a variety of healthcare services.
"In our minds, we feel that everyone from nutritionists to naturopaths to general surgeons to chiropractors could have a shared benefit from being housed under the one facility," says Gail Penney, president of Penney Group, which includes Pennecon Realty.
That company was revealed to be the highest bidder for MacPherson Academy on Newtown Road earlier this year — buying the property for just under $895,600.
The idea for a health hub is an idea that Pennecon employees have been chatting about, while looking for the right place.
"When the MacPherson property came on the scene, we thought, 'My goodness, here is this wonderful pillar of our community ... it's got a long tradition of serving our community,'" said Penney.
Other attractive features? It's located in the centre of St. John's and has 50,000 square feet of usable space which has "tremendous value," according to Penney.
Win-win
Penney said the model is both convenient and possibly cost-saving.
"[Healthcare providers] all have front-end staff, they all have overheads. Perhaps if they could share [those] overheads then there could be a better service provision for the clients and perhaps a better savings for the medical," she said.
Most recently, the 70-year-old school has been used for TV shoots, including the Republic of Doyle. Pennecon was also the highest bidder for Booth Memorial High and Bishop's College, but those deals don't close until July.
Penney said the idea is far from a done deal, and the company wants to hear from different providers to see if there is an interest in this kind of operation.
"We have an open-ended approach to this, were wanting to find out ... [if] they see the benefit of being housed under one roof," she said.
There is a meeting for any service provider interested in renting or buying space in the building for the proposed health hub on Wednesday starting at 7 p.m at 1309 Topsail Road.
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