• Private hospital sold to Border Investor, options considered for site

    Wodonga’s Murray Valley Private Hospital sells for just below $7 million after attracting strong interest

    STORY ACCREDITATION: The Border Mail, Wednesday 8 February, 2023 | Writer: Beau Greenway

    The Murray Valley Private Hospital on Wodonga’s Noordsvan Drive sold for almost $7 million to a Border investor and developer. Picture by Dixon Commercial Real Estate.

    Wodonga’s private hospital site is being considered as an aged care facility or women’s refuge after selling for almost $7 million to a Border investor.

    Ramsay Health Care placed the Murray Valley Private Hospital on Noordsvan Drive on the market in October last year as it prepared to move all of its services to Albury’s private facility in the city’s west.

    Dixon Commercial Real Estate sold the 41,500-square-metre site through an expressions of interest campaign, which closed in mid-December before contracts were signed late last month.

    “There was some good interest locally and from Melbourne and Sydney. The subsequent buyer was a local investor and developer,” estate agent Andrew Dixon said.

    “He’s got a few different ideas as to what he may or may not do with the property. He’s considered aged care, at one stage he was thinking even potentially a women’s refuge or even a music academy.

    “We were hoping for in excess of $7 million and it was pretty close to that.”

    Ramsay Health Care will lease the premises for the next 18 months to allow it enough time to transfer the rehabilitation ward to a new home as part of Albury Wodonga Private Hospital.

    “We are pleased to confirm that both parties have finalised the sale of Murray Valley Private Hospital, with settlement to occur later this month,” Murray Valley Private Hospital and Albury Wodonga Private Hospital chief executive Sheryl Keir said.

    “As part of the terms of the sale, we will continue to operate as normal for 18 months while we expand our nearby Albury Wodonga Private Hospital campus.

    “Once this expansion has occurred, all of our employees and rehabilitation services will be able to move from Murray Valley Private Hospital to the revamped Albury site.”

    Chief executive of Ramsay Health Care’s Border hospitals Sheryl Keir and selling agent Andrew Dixon at Wodonga’s Murray Valley Private Hospital. Picture by Ash Smith

    Ms Keir said the expansion at Albury Wodonga Private Hospital would be “modern and state-of-the-art” including private patient rooms, a new allied therapy space with gym, rehab garden and ADL (activities of daily living) kitchen, and sessional consulting rooms.

    “By combining our rehabilitation services from Murray Valley with our existing surgical services, we will be able to offer comprehensive services in one location and strengthen our offering to patients,” she said.

    “We are also exploring environmentally sustainable initiatives as part of this project, including solar panels.”

    The unique building, known for its brutalist architecture through the use of exposed materials such as concrete pipes, was the former home of Clyde Cameron College, which opened in 1978 and was the headquarters of the Australian Trade Training Authority.

    It cost around $6.5 million to construct and was one of the most expensive buildings of a similar size in Australia at the time.

    The college operated until its closure in 1996, before it was purchased by Ramsay Health Care and transformed into a private hospital, which opened in 1999.

    “To replace the building now you might be looking in excess of $60 or $70 million,” Mr Dixon added.

    “It’s just an amazing building that is obviously going to enter a new a new chapter.”

    Mr Dixon said other tenants of Wodonga’s private hospital, including Seal Swim School, would be offered tenancies to coincide with the lease expiry.