Veridea Group announces intent to purchase current UPHS-Marquette property

MARQUETTE — Veridea Group and UP Health System-Marquette announced Friday that they have signed a definitive agreement for the developer to purchase the hospital system’s current College Avenue complex.

Veridea’s redevelopment plans for the site will incorporate reuse of several existing buildings, demolition of unusable facilities, and construction of office, residential, retail, lodging and extensive public spaces.

Preliminary plans envision uses and design that complement and integrate with the Northern Michigan University campus and surrounding neighborhoods.

Veridea will be providing additional information on its redevelopment plans in future months.

Closing on the transaction is scheduled to occur in the summer of 2019, subject to due diligence and following the relocation of UP Health System-Marquette to its newly constructed downtown health care campus.

According to a press release, the property to be acquired by Veridea encompasses a 21-acre campus that includes 11 health care-related facilities with more than 800,000 square feet of buildings and infrastructure. It also contains a number of single-family residences and vacant lots in the surrounding neighborhood.

“We’re excited and honored to have reached this agreement with UP Health System following two years of effort,” said Robert Mahaney, President of Veridea Group. “As residents of Marquette, we appreciate how important the current hospital campus is to the city and especially the surrounding neighborhoods. We feel very strongly that this area cannot remain vacant and that redevelopment needs to happen quickly, led by a team that understands our community’s unique challenges and opportunities. While much remains to be done on both sides before Veridea Group can take ownership, this project has the potential to deliver transformative growth to the City of Marquette and meet a number of community and neighborhood needs.”

UP Health System-Marquette CEO Brian Sinotte said that the Marquette community will benefit from Veridea’s redevelopment of the current hospital campus.

“We wanted to be certain that any future plans for the property would be designed in the best interest of the community we serve,” Sinotte said. “Veridea’s track record and past community investment combined with its team’s vision for a mixed-use property that considers the surrounding neighborhoods will be transformational for Marquette.”

UPHS-Marquette plans to move to a new $300 million hospital on Baraga Avenue this spring.