MILFORD — One of the largest hospitals in the state is buying more residential property next to its recently opened Sussex County health campus in order to safeguard for future growth.
Bayhealth Medical Center purchased two single-family homes along Cedar Creek Road in Lincoln for a combined $1.18 million. The hospital bought the property at 7237 Cedar Creek Road in Lincoln for $575,000 and the property at 7255 Cedar Creek Road, according to records dated as recently as June 3.
Both properties are across the street from Bayhealth’s $300 million Sussex County campus that was opened in February 2019.
“Purchasing property adjacent to our hospital gives us flexibility in where to provide services in the future,” said John Van Gorp, Bayhealth senior vice president of planning and business development.
Rising to meet a surge in senior citizens flocking to southern Delaware, Bayhealth built a six-story hospital with 128 beds at the foot of Route 1. The campus was built in mind for the hospital system to grow as needed, putting its Milford Memorial Hospital on the market.
The first addition to the Sussex Campus is the Nemours Sussex Medical Office Building, which will bring pediatric care and specialty services south of the C&D Canal.
To match its rising growth, Bayhealth has acquired other properties, notably 52 acres east of Cedar Creek Road for $6 million in 2018.
While Bayhealth sold the Milford hospital to Nationwide Healthcare Services in summer of 2019, it still held onto three properties nearby, according to property records.
Bayhealth Hospital has been in central and southern Delaware since the 1920s with the Kent General Hospital in Dover and the Milford Memorial Hospital. Today, Bayhealth is the third-largest hospital system in Delaware with 4,000 employees, according to the Delaware Business Times research.
By Katie Tabeling
