UMass Memorial sought to buy shuttered Nashoba Valley Medical Center for new ER, but the hospital’s property owner declined

Photo I Courtesy of State House News Service Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer closed on Aug. 31.

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UMass Memorial Health’s first choice to open a standalone emergency room to partially replace the shuttered Nashoba Valley Medical Center was simply to purchase the closed facility, but the Worcester-based health system couldn’t reach an agreement with the landlord.

“The current site was our first option but it did not work out, so we are now focused on other location options,” Shelly Hazlett, UMass Memorial director of media and public relations, wrote in an email to WBJ.

Instead, UMass Memorial will undertake the presumably much lengthier process of buying new property and building the standalone emergency department. In the meantime, first responders in the Nashoba Valley region are saying emergency services are strained to the breaking point since the 77-bed NVMC hospital closed.

The NVMC property owner, New York City-based Apollo Global Management, NVMC’s building and land owner, declined to comment on the rebuffed purchase offer. UMass Memorial declined to give details on the purchase offer.

NVMC closed on Aug. 31, despite the fervent appeals of government officials, community leaders, and residents. The closure was part of Texas-based Steward’s bankruptcy filings, which resulted in the closure of both NVMC and Carney Hospital in Dorchester.

Officials from UMass Memorial were part of a 32-person group assembled by Gov. Maura Healey in October to address health care in the Nashoba Valley region following the hospital’s closure. In January, UMass Memorial announced its decision to open a standalone emergency room in the region.

“We understand the challenges that the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center has caused for the region, and we have been listening closely to the concerns of impacted patients and the legislators that represent them,” Hazlett wrote. “We believe this solution can fill the community’s critical needs and address their primary areas of concern.”

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.