Historic Montana hospital hits the market for just $10 — but potential buyers face this huge obstacle

A historic, sprawling Spanish mission-style building that served as a working hospital in Montana until the 1940s is on the market for just $10.

But if it sounds too good to be true, it actually is.

The three-story, more than 16,000-square-foot former hospital building may be for sale, but the land it sits on is not.

The buyer would have to move the medical facility off the property and relocate it elsewhere, according to its real estate listing.

To sweeten this unusual deal, the seller is offering up to $100,000 in moving credit to help defer relocation and transition costs.

This is just a drop in the ocean of the estimated cost of moving and restoring a 113-year-old building of this size.

Restoration costs alone were estimated at around $8 million, according to the Missoula Current.

Old Post Hospital was built at Fort Missoula in 1911 and served as a hospital until it was decommissioned in 1947.

Doctors and nurses treated patients suffering from the 1918 Spanish flu, children with polio during the epidemic, and Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants during World War II, when it served as the main hospital for the ” alien detention camp.

After its decommissioning, the building was transformed into medical practices open until 2015.

The hospital’s current owner had proposed a development plan that he said would fund its restoration — but the plan was rejected by the Missoula Historic Preservation Commission, the local publication reported.

The developer, FAE-Wolf, filed permits to build 16 townhouses on private property adjacent to the hospital building and planned to use revenue generated from those homes to fund its restoration.

But the commission denied permits because of the development’s sightlines, opinions about open space and the belief that townhouses would diminish “the significance of the historic building,” the Current reported.

FAE-Wolf appealed the decision to the Missoula City Council – claiming it was based on bias, but the council rejected his appeal by a 7-4 vote, according to the outlet.

Now, unless an interested buyer comes forward, the owners said they will file new permits — this time for the demolition of the hospital.

“It is with a heavy heart that FAE-Wolf was forced to prepare a demolition permit application from the City of Missoula to remove Old Post Hospital,” the project developer said in a statement, according to the local news publication.

“Now, after 5 years and spending over $750,000 managing the property, paying taxes and fees to try to get our proposal approved, we have no choice but to move forward with the removal or demolition of the hospital. »