Owners of New Jersey hospitals offer unsolicited bid for Landmark

A NEW BIDDER has emerged for Wooksocket's Landmark Medical Center, offering $4 million more than the bid submitted by Prime Healthcare Services. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
A NEW BIDDER has emerged for Wooksocket's Landmark Medical Center, offering $4 million more than the bid submitted by Prime Healthcare Services. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

PROVIDENCE – Landmark Hospital Holdco LLC, owned by the principals of Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken University Medical Center, and Christ Hospital in New Jersey, submitted a bid on Nov. 1 to buy Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket for a price that they said was $4 million more than the existing bid by Prime Healthcare Services of Ontario, Calif.

“Not only is our offer economically superior to other potential buyers, but more broadly, it is absolutely more favorable for patients, staff and the Rhode Island community,” said Spencer Baretz, the spokesman for Landmark Hospital Holdco, in a statement issued on Thursday.

Baretz praised the ownership group of Landmark Hopsital Holdco as having “a history of success saving community-based, acute-care hospitals, including maintaining virtually all staff.”

Bill Fischer, the spokesman for Jonathan N. Savage, the special master for Landmark, acknowledged that the bid from Landmark Hospital Holdco had been received, in a statement issued late Thursday afternoon.

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In his statement, Fischer said that while Savage had a fiduciary responsibility to review the offer and report on this matter to the court, there were no motions or pleadings being contemplated.

“The Special Master is more than satisfied with Prime’s offer and the pace of discussions related to the acquisition process,” Fischer said. The offer was submitted by an entity, Fischer continued, “that was deemed unqualified during the 2011 court-supervised bidder process because they failed to submit requisite threshold information to both the special master and the court.”

Landmark has been in receivership for more than four years, beginning in June 2008. A number of previous suitors to buy Landmark walked away from potential deals, most recently Steward Health Care of Boston.

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