Richmond Hts. hospital may try sale-leaseback. (Richmond Heights General Hospital)(Late News)

Richmond Hts. hospital may try sale-leaseback

Richmond Heights General Hospital has cleared the first hurdle in an attempt to sell and leaseback its hospital and other holdings.

The Ohio Department of Health has notified a group of investors which would buy and lease back the property as a limited partnership under the name RHGH Realty Co. that its proposal doesn't require department approval.

The state health director's office said last week that purchasing a hospital doesn't ordinarily require department approval. Details concerning the proposed sale have not been finalized nor has the partnership been created.

Neither Nicholas Zinni, Richmond Heights General's president and CEO, nor a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing the investment group would disclose the names of the investors. Mr. Zinni said the sale-leaseback transaction would help reduce the 220-bed hospital's debt load.