Missouri Operator Exercises Lease Agreement, Buys Gravette Hospital

by Paul Gatling ([email protected]) 126 views 

A Missouri health care organization recently exercised its option to purchase its Northwest Arkansas operations in a $3 million deal.

Ozarks Community Hospital, through its Apple Healthcare LLC, bought two facilities it had been leasing — Ozarks Community Hospital of Gravette and an adjacent family practice clinic — at 1101 Jackson St. Southwest. The transaction involves a total of 120,000 SF.

Janice Lykins and her son, John Lykins, through their Lykins Landholdings LLC, were the sellers.

The Bank of Missouri in Perryville, Missouri, financed the deal.

Lykins acquired the development in November 2007 for $950,000 and signed a lease agreement with Springfield, Missouri-based OCH to lease the facilities and re-open the hospital, formerly known as Gravette Medical Center Hospital.

The hospital re-opened in March 2008. It currently has 25 inpatient beds and 24-hour emergency room services.

OCH communications manager Andrea Harp said, as part of the investment, the company has added 65 full-time employees to the local staff, and now has 267 employees in Arkansas.