Baptist development update

The Northside Sun updates us on the Belhaven-Baptist development:

Baptist Health Systems is one step closer to finding a developer to transform its property east of the hospital’s North State Street campus into a mixed-use development. Spokesman Robby Channell said the hospital has named three finalists for the project including Belz Enterprises out of Memphis, Townsend Capital out of Baltimore, Md., and the Jackson development team of Mattiace Properties, Peters Real Estate and Ben Walker.

He said a firm could be chosen in the next couple of months. Requests for Proposals from the developers are due on Friday, June 13, to be considered for master developer.

Late last year, the hospital hosted an event at a Belhaven neighborhood meeting to discuss plans to develop approximately 8.69 acres of land bordered by Fortification, Poplar, North State and Jefferson streets. Baptist President and CEO Kurt Metzner told residents at the meeting that he would like to see development that would include office and retail space, a small hotel and residential units. Metzner also told the crowd that he wanted to work with the Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Association (GBNF) to make sure the property would be in character with the neighborhood’s character.

Now, the property is home to Baptist’s laundromat service and several abandoned office buildings, also owned by Baptist.

Read the full story here: Three finalists named to develop Belhaven project for Baptist