Infrastructure Minister Fred Hutton says a deal to purchase land for a new St. John’s hospital is almost done – with the same company that announced Monday it was donating 10 acres of land to the province for the hospital.

The site for the health care campus to replace St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital was announced Monday. On Friday, Hutton announced there was an agreement with H3 Development to purchase 54 acres of land in the Kenmount Crossing area.

“We’re not there yet, but we have a memorandum of understanding with them to do that,” Hutton said.

Two representatives from H3 Development, Bert Hickman and Glen Hickey, were also part of Monday’s announcement. Hickey told reporters the development group was donating 10 acres of land for the hospital site, but there was no talk of purchasing additional land.

Now, as allNewfoundlandLabrador first reported, the government’s deal goes beyond a simple donation. The province is buying the rest of the land from H3 Development for about $23 million.

WATCH | NL’s deal with H3 Development could close soon:

NL buys 54 acres of land for hospital to replace St. Clare’s

Transportation Minister Fred Hutton says a $23 million deal to purchase a 54-acre parcel of land in St. John’s for a new hospital is almost complete. This is a deal with H3 Development, the same company that announced Monday it would donate 10 acres of land to the province, and there was no public tender for the land. This is what Mark Quinn of the CBC reports.

No public call for tenders for the land has been launched. Hutton said that was not necessary in this case.

“We are not obliged to go out to public tender for the purchase of land for the facilities that (the Ministry of) Infrastructure is building. Basically, you know, we are looking at what would be the best option in terms of location of a facility like this, of a healthcare facility, would disappear,” Hutton said.

Hutton said there is not enough Crown land available in the Kenmount Crossing area to build a hospital of the size the government says is needed.

“We need to have something about the same or larger than (the Health Sciences Center), which is, as I mentioned, about 54 acres,” he said.

There is, however, Crown land adjacent to the land, which Hutton says also opens up opportunities for things like housing development and access to the new hospital from the outer ring road.

Hutton said Hickman approached the government with the land after learning the new hospital would not be located on the site of the former Grace Hospital in St. John’s. The purchase agreement was not mentioned during the announcement because it was not finalized at the time, he said.

A call for tenders will be launched for the construction of the hospital.

“We’re still a long way from that, but obviously for anything built there, there has to be a competitive bidding process. That’s part of our public procurement,” Hutton said.

CBC requested comment from H3 Development Group, but had not received a response as of Friday evening.

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