"College Street Partners devised an adaptive re-use program to help the campus operate more efficiently, reducing operating costs. They identified creative alternative uses, and potential users, for the underutilized real estate assets they uncovered during the study."

- Patrick Muldoon, President & CEO, HealthAlliance Hospitals

Background
HealthAlliance is a member of UMass Memorial Health Care and includes two campuses at Burbank and Leominster. HealthAlliance serves the many communities of North Central Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire, while offering patients the advantages of direct access to the region’s leading academic medical center.

Problem & Opportunity
HealthAlliance retained College Street Partners (CSP) to strategically assess the Burbank Campus located in Fitchburg, MA. Many of the buildings were showing signs of extreme aging and intensity of use. Given the increased pressure on the financial bottom line, the hospital wanted to immediately address the financial and operating problems.

Solution
After an extensive analysis of the campus, CSP provided the hospital with a comprehensive Re-Use and Valuation Study, a strategic game plan for the Burbank Campus. During the due diligence process, CSP identified the operational problems affecting the campus and developed real estate-based solutions to address these issues.

Result
Upon completion of the project, CSP found solutions to reduce operating expenses, enhance third-party lease income and minimize future capital expenditures all within the confines of HealthAlliance's stated objectives. CSP estimates the results could enhance the campus operating results by up to 25%, financially substantiating the business case for the project. Other benefits include significantly minimizing vacancy (optimizing campus utilization), upgrading the mechanical infrastructure as well as creating a reconstituted campus providing the Administration flexibility for future space needs.

After identifying significant land assets on the Burbank campus, CSP analyzed the value of those assets. After a thorough investigation of the local market and zoning bylaws, CSP creatively identified numerous, non-traditional potential uses for the campus. Due to the increasing demands on the capital budget associated with increasingly expensive medical equipment and other costs, CSP was able to provide the hospital with creative financing options through the monetization of real estate assets to help finance the project.