Hospital to Sell Land for $4.7 Million

San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, which has struggled for a year to improve its finances, is about to sell a parcel of land that holds parking lots and an old medical building.

“We hope to sell it and raise money for capital projects,” hospital President John Wilson said Tuesday at a public meeting in San Pedro where he released a report on the hospital’s financial condition.

Wilson said the hospital has accepted a $4.7-million offer for 17 contiguous lots between 6th and 7th streets. He said the identity of the buyer, a local individual, would not be released until the deal is closed.

The hospital plans to use the money to improve the facilities of its maternal and child health programs.

The land sale is part of the hospital’s drive to pull itself back from severe financial difficulty. At the beginning of 1989, it had accumulated losses of $9 million on an annual budget of $85 million. Last year it laid off employees, cut back costly or money-losing programs and expanded programs that made the most profit. By the end of 1989, the deficit had been reduced to $1.3 million, Wilson said.