Vacant Charter Glade facility sells

The long-standing vacant Charter Glade facility on Colonial Boulevard and Deer Farms Road sold to a public-private joint venture cocnsistitng of seven Fort Myers investors and Lee Mental Health, Inc.

Frank D'Alessandro, a commercial real estate broker with D'Alessandro & Woodyard Commercial Team at RE/MAX Realty Group, along with three physicians and three businessmen, paid $2.25 million cash to buy the 15-acre property.

The partnership holds 67 percent ownership in the property and Lee Mental Health, which does business as the Ruth Cooper Center for Behavioral Health, holds the remaining 33 percent.

The seller, Texas-based Crescent Real Estate Funding VII, had originally listed the property at over $5 million. The property's tax-assessed value is $5,271,000.

"It took quite a bit of negotiation and we were fortunate to get the property for that price. It also allowed us to offer Ruth Cooper a rent discounted from the market rent," said D'Alessandro. "That this was an all-cash deal made the difference."

The sale allows for significant expansion of the Ruth Cooper Center for Behavioral Health through a 20-year lease on the larger of the two buildings on the property.

Ruth Cooper Center serves over 8,000 people in Lee County, providing the inpatient psychiatric care for adults and children.

Last month, the Center admitted 219 patients in its cramped Ortiz Avenue quarters.

"We realized the void for behavioral health care in Southwest Florida," said D'Alessandro said.

Jan Eustis, director of the Ruth Cooper Center, said its lease with the partners of the former 144-bed Charter Glade hospital includes plans to renovate the 48,551 square-foot building before moving in next winter or spring.

Plans also may allow for an expansion of services. "We have to look at what's economically feasible and what's needed in the community," Eustis said.

The partners include local attorney Bruce Frankel, dermatologist Michael Haiken, eye surgeons Jonathan Frantz and Joseph Walker, and real estate investors Jack Blais and Joseph Lobosco.