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(Visited 299 times, 1 visits today)
  • Transaction / Assets
    hospital in Rome
  • Seller
    Region of Lazio
  • Buyer
    Invimit Sgr
  • € MM
    61

Rome: San Giacomo hospital sold for 61 million

12 January, Il Tempo

Ten years after its closure, the Region of Lazio sold the San Giacomo hospital. One of the oldest hospitals in Rome, it has been sold for 61 million to Invimit Sgr Spa, the state-owned company of the Ministry of the Economy which manages the closed-end mutual real estate investment fund named i3 – Regione Lazio.  For this 12th-century building, the city administration obtained “17,848,300 euro, corresponding to the 29.26% of the value, through direct payment, while the remaining 43,151,699 euro, corresponding to the 70.74%, through the underwriting by the Region of 62 shares for a nominal value of 696,995.156 euro each”.

The Land Registry Office gave the green light to the sale based on “the requalification plan and the feasibility study submitted by the Region of Lazio”. Moreover, “the evaluating committee deemed adequate the value of 61 million euro as estimated by the independent appraisals of the Fund “i-3 Regione Lazio”. The evaluation, however, has been contested by some members of the regional administration, such as deputy Stefano Fassina: “We’re giving the permission for speculation in the heart of Rome old town, as we can see also from the law recently approved by the Parliament regarding the change of intended use of public properties into private”. According to the trade union Fials, “61 million for a 32 thousand Sq m surface is a sell-off, as it means 1,900 euro/Sq m”. Just before the closure on 31st October 2008, “15 million euro were spent for the renovation works of San Giacomo. Money thrown out of the window, – adds Fials – in addition to 10 years of leasing at 140 thousand euro per year plus the surveillance costs”.

In December 2017, to reply to the accusations from the Five Stare Movement about the intention of the regional administration of turning the former hospital into a hotel, the Region of Lazio clarified that “there will be no hotel in San Giacomo, it will be turned instead into a Caritas centre dedicated to senior people, keeping its healthcare vocation”. However, the resolution number 856 reads that the potential intended uses may be “senior house, fitness centre, commercial spaces, restaurants, parking lots: for a total value of 61 million euro”. The contract specifies that the building is subject to historical-artistic restrictions. The successors of Cardinal Salviati, who gave the building to the city at the condition that its hospital function would be kept, have been requesting the respect of this restriction for a long time. In reply, the resolution reads that “it’s not possible to requalify the property and continue using it as a hospital due to the new regulation concerning the seismic classification of the territory”. The appeal of the successors of Cardinal Salviati to the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) is still pending. In fact, the contract specifies that “the sale agreement is pending the final judgment cancelling the decree from the president of Lazio ordering the termination of the hospital function”.

In that case, “the amount of the selling price would be returned, and the shares would be voided”. This is what the political party Potere al Popolo wishes: “we don’t want to sell out, people keep demanding the re-opening of the hospital which used to offer 120 beds, and whose Emergency Room used to assist 27,000 patients a year”.

Source: Il Tempo

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi