Two lawmakers filed a bill Monday for the state to take Norwood Hospital by eminent domain, creating a potential pathway for the former Steward hospital to reopen under a new owner.
Reopening the flood-ravaged hospital, which has been shuttered for more than five years, has been a top priority for the town and its residents. Following Steward Health Care’s 2024 bankruptcy, Norwood is the last hospital in the state still owned by an Alabama-based real estate investment trust linked to Steward.
State Representative John Rogers said several unnamed prospective hospital operators are interested in buying Norwood Hospital and are negotiating with its landlord, Medical Properties Trust.
Rogers said he is encouraging the parties to reach a deal, but as negotiations continue, he and State Senator Michael Rush, both Democrats who represent the area, are simultaneously seeking a different tactic to get the hospital into the hands of a new operator — using state muscle.
The bill would authorize and direct the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to take the property by eminent domain.
The goal would ultimately be to secure a new operator for the site, whether through a deal signed with the landlord, or a sale to a new operator by way of the state.
Rogers said he spoke to Medical Properties Trust CEO Edward K. Aldag Jr. about the eminent domain possibility to try to help close a deal.
“I just advised him — your business judgment is far better than mine," Rogers told the Globe. “You’re successful all over the planet. But I know Massachusetts politics better than you do. You should build goodwill on your way out the door and sell it for a fire sale price. Eminent domain is fire sale anyway. We can do it the easy way, or hard way, but either way, we are chasing them out of Massachusetts.”
Medical Properties Trust did not respond to requests for comment.
If the eminent domain procedure happens, it would mark the second hospital formerly owned by the flailing Steward health care system that state regulators have taken by force. In September 2024, the state seized Steward’s St. Elizabeth’s property in Brighton, ultimately reaching a settlement with then-owner Apollo Asset Management to pay $66 million for the parcel.
That hospital is currently operated by Boston Medical Center, and has since been renamed Boston Medical Center - Brighton.
Governor Maura Healey’s office declined to comment on the bill seeking eminent domain.
Today, the Norwood property has the shell of a hospital building, awaiting an interior buildout that meets the needs of a future operator. A parking garage on the site is also in the midst of construction, said John Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction, which is doing the work on the site.
Fish said MPT began the garage construction in recent months, knowing the structure would be necessary regardless of who took over the site, and would add value to the property.
The fate of the 215-bed Norwood Hospital has been up in the air since June 2020, when catastrophic flooding shuttered the hospital.
Hospital consultants ultimately decided the existing building could not be restored, and plans shifted to remake the building. Construction began in November 2021.
But Steward’s escalating financial problems bled into the hospital rebuild process. Construction had halted by February 2024, with companies working on the site citing a lack of payment.
Steward filed for bankruptcy in May 2024. While it went on to sell or shutter the majority of its other hospitals in Massachusetts and beyond, the health system ultimately turned over the Norwood property to its landlord, Medical Properties Trust, which had acquired the real estate of almost all of Steward’s hospitals in 2016. Any new operator would have to seek a new license from the state Department of Public Health.
Despite the problems, Medical Properties Trust voiced a desire at the time to find a new operator.
Yet state officials soon soured on allowing real estate companies to own and lease out hospitals. Boston Globe reporting showed Steward had buckled under the weight of the rent payments it had negotiated with MPT. Steward and MPT executives benefited from the sale-leaseback deal, even as it left the hospitals saddled with debt and high rent obligations.
In the aftermath of the system’s collapse, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a bill in January 2025 prohibiting hospitals from selling their primary campus to outside investors. Rogers said the law effectively bars MPT from continuing to own the hospital and lease it to a new operator.
Selling the land for other purposes doesn’t make much sense, said Norwood General Manager Tony Mazzucco. Zoning restrictions limit what can happen on the site, and work MPT and Steward began on the site is for a hospital. He said MPT has voiced a desire to sell the property to a hospital operator.
Local leaders have not given up hopes for that future. Under the direction of Healey, a task force was formed in March 2025 to restore health care services in the region.
A lot of work has been happening behind the scenes to achieve that end, Mazzucco said. Though MPT will ultimately decide who to sell to, the task force is facilitating progress where it can, including having conversations with potential health system operators interested in building and operating a full-service hospital. Interest has picked up in the past six months, Mazzucco said.
“We’ve spoken to most of the major operators in Eastern Massachusetts and are homing in on the most viable option that meets our needs,” he said. “If someone says we want to do a standalone ER, that won’t meet our needs.”
A number of the state’s largest operators told the Globe they have been approached, but they aren’t involved with a Norwood hospital rebuild. Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health, said his system was not pursuing anything. John Fernandez, CEO of Brown University Health, said his system didn’t have the finances to undertake such a project, and that it confronted a number of regulatory hurdles.
Dr. Kevin Tabb, CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health, said his system was open to the possibility of providing outpatient care in that community, but it was not party to a discussion of opening inpatient care.
Mass General Brigham did not respond to requests for comment.
Finding an operator is only the start of the challenges. The workforce has been absorbed by hospitals near and far, and patients have fallen into habits of seeking health care elsewhere. Reopening the hospital at this point is more tantamount to opening one from scratch.
Mazzucco was undeterred, saying given the community size — 220,000 people in the catchment area — there was a need for a facility.
“Norwood has been in business 150 years,” Mazzucco said. “If it’s another couple years [to reopen a hospital], the region is willing to keep waiting.”
Jessica Bartlett can be reached at jessica.bartlett@globe.com. Follow her @ByJessBartlett.