St. Elizabeth's Medical Center landlords fight Healey's takeover plan – NBC Boston

The company that controls the real estate of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton rejected Gov. Maura Healey's $4.5 million offer for the property and told the state it would “vigorously contest” the governor's plan to expropriate the Steward Health Care hospital land through expropriation.

The governor announced Friday that the state plans to seize the land to facilitate the hospital's relocation to Boston Medical Center. The state offered the companies that control the hospital's real estate $4.5 million Friday “to acquire the fee and all other necessary property rights in St. Elizabeth's Medical Center” as a first step toward expropriating the land.

The companies – led by ACREFI CS U, LLC and including Medical Properties Trust and Apollo Global Management – rejected that offer in a letter late Tuesday, saying the state's proposal “significantly undervalues ​​St. Elizabeth's underlying property” and represents an amount less than the annual tax bill for the property.

“Accordingly, should the Commonwealth proceed with its proposed plan of expropriation and compensate ACREFI only $4.5 million for the property, ACREFI will have no choice but to exercise its constitutional and statutory rights and take all necessary actions to protect the interests of the investors to whom it owes fiduciary obligations,” the lender's letter states. “ACREFI believes that the Commonwealth's proposed plan and past conduct raise numerous procedural and constitutional issues that it will vigorously contest.”

Healey's office said it was in the process of completing the necessary legal work to proceed with an official expropriation order.

“Steward and Apollo must stop playing games with people's healthcare. We are moving forward with our plans to take over St. Elizabeth's through expropriation,” a Healey spokesman said on Wednesday afternoon.