Investment group to renovate Detroit hospital, create senior center

Posted on February 1, 2011

St. John Providence Health has finalized the transfer of its former Riverview Hospital property in Detroit to an investment group that will renovate the large campus to create a model senior citizen complex, the health system announced today.

The deal followed approvals last week by the Detroit City Council and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to allow the transfer.

The investors, known as DRSN Inc., of Franklin, will create a nursing home, wellness and rehabilitation centers, urgent care and dental services, a pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy, primary care doctor’s offices, and a beauty and barber shop.

Renovations are to begin immediately on the site, located on East Jefferson, east of Belle Isle.

St. John Providence, headquartered in Warren, will continue to operate the urgent care center, along with other programs such as the wellness center. St. John also has partnered with Oakland University to create a Learning Institute that trains people for health care jobs, including a second-degree program for college graduates wanting to change careers into nursing.

The plans are part of a strategy by St. John to convert large, mostly abandoned tracts that once anchored hospitals into new multi-purpose sites with services better suited to community needs. After it closed Riverview’s inpatient services in June 2007, St. John created a non-profit organization, Healthy Neighborhoods Detroit, to study ways to bring new investments to east side Detroit communities affected by the closure of St. John hospitals.