JOHNSTOWN - Nathan Littauer Hospital officials are hoping to turn the Cataract Care Center into rental space for surgeons, officials said Friday.
The hospital on Tuesday closed on a deal to purchase the property from eye doctor John Kearney.
Neither Kearney nor the hospital would disclose the purchase price, but according to property-transaction records filed with ?Fulton County, the price was $900,000.
The facility also has a surgery center, which Kearney donated to the hospital. Kearney said the sale of the property would allow him to pay off more than $300,000 in back taxes he owes to various municipalities and give him money to upgrade his equipment and make some renovations.
Kearney's practice will operate out of about 40 percent of the facility's space. The rest, according to Littauer officials, probably will be rented to doctors and surgeons who want to practice in the area.
Littauer now owns the center's two buildings and about 7.5 acres around them. The office space is about 15,000 square feet, and the surgery center is about 10,000 square feet, hospital officials said. Kearney will use about 4,500 square feet of one building and will lease it from the hospital. He will continue to perform surgery at the facility.
Littauer President and Chief Executive Officer Laurence Kelly called the space "versatile" and said purchasing it was a long-term investment.
Kelly said the hospital already owns three other buildings where space is rented to doctors. He said he hopes the building's ambulatory surgery space will attract orthopedic surgeons and other specialists.
"This gives us the flexibility to offer space to surgeons who may want to locate in our region," he said. "We are passionate about recruiting the finest physicians for this area."
Kayleigh Karutis can be reached at gloversville@leaderherald.com.