St. Elizabeth’s landlord rejects eminent domain bid; Healey responds ‘stop playing games’

The company that controls Steward Health Care’s hospital properties in Massachusetts has rejected Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to save St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center by seizing its building and grounds for $4.5 million.

The firm, a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, said that offer is a mere fraction of the property’s assessed value of more than $200 million. It’s even less than the $5.1 million annual tax bill for St. Elizabeth’s.

In a letter to the Healey administration, Apollo attorney Joel Faller threatened to “vigorously challenge” the plan to take St. Elizabeth’s through eminent domain and transfer the property to Boston Medical Center. He said the plan — and the state’s conduct — raise “numerous procedural and constitutional issues.”

If the state moves forward, the company wrote, “[Apollo] will have no choice but to exercise its constitutional and statutory rights and take any and all actions necessary to protect the interests of the investors to which it has fiduciary obligations.”

Apollo officials stand ready to negotiate a fair sale price for St. Elizabeth’s property to avoid the time and cost of litigation, the company said.

The company’s resistance to Healey is the latest wrinkle in the complicated and still unfinished process of determining the future of most of Steward’s local hospitals, after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May. Apollo’s rebuff sets up the possibility of a legal battle that could further delay resolution for one of Steward Health Care’s biggest hospitals.

Still, Healey’s plan is unchanged, her spokesperson, Jillian Fennimore, said Wednesday.

“Steward and Apollo need to stop playing games with people’s health care,” she said by email. “We are moving forward with plans to take St. Elizabeth’s by eminent domain.”

Apollo is the mortgage holder for Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Asset Management, two firms that jointly served as the landlord for Steward’s Massachusetts properties. MPT and Macquarie recently agreed to hand the properties over to Apollo to facilitate hospital sales.

All three companies have come under fire from the governor, who has accused them of trying to maximize profit while health care for so many Massachusetts residents hangs in the balance. Healey also accused Steward officials of greed and profiteering.

Last Friday, before heading to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Healey announced tentative deals for five Steward hospitals. She said Boston Medical Center would take over Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, and eventually, St. Elizabeth’s. Rhode Island-based Lifespan would operate Morton Hospital in Taunton and St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River. And Lawrence General Hospital, she said, would take over Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill and Methuen.