Fresno County once again wants to find a buyer for the abandoned University Medical Center hospital in southeast Fresno. The old UMC campus is again for sale at an asking price of $6 million. The sale of the property comes nearly five years after a deal to sell the property resulted in criminal charges for a former county staffer, the Fresno Bee reports.
In 2019, the county approved an agreement to sell the building for $4 million to the Fresno-based CMG Construction Management Group, which planned to turn the site into a mixed-use development with affordable housing, a pharmacy, a grocery store, and retail. But the deal fell through when Steve Rapada, former chief of staff for Supervisor Sal Quintero, was arrested and alleged to have financial stakes in the county-negotiated contract. Rapada was sentenced to a year of probation and 60 hours of community service for a misdemeanor conflict of interest violation. City officials revoked their end of the deal, calling it “tainted.” CMG Construction Management Group then sued both the city and the county over the collapsed deal in 2022. A case management conference is scheduled for next month. In 2021, the city of Fresno also entertained the idea of buying the old hospital. Read more.
