Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — The former Community Hospital will be demolished soon, and the land will be available for development.

Christian Wroten of River Park Realty, which represents owners JR Real Property as leasing agents, said the hospital building at 129 Jeff Davis Blvd. is beyond saving.

“After the hospital shut down (in 2018), vandals were able to get in and ripped copper out of the walls and otherwise destroyed it,” Wroten said.

In the process of doing that, the vandals also exposed asbestos, he said.

“There was lots of asbestos in the building. You can cover it up, but once it is exposed, it has to be removed. That building was just too far gone to save,” Wroten said.

Asbestos abatement has now been completed and anything left inside the building is being removed in preparation for the upcoming demolition.

“We would love someone to buy the property and develop some apartments there. That would be great use for the property in Natchez, where there is a major need for places to live. Most of the apartments here are full,” Wroten said.

Wroten works with his mother, Tabitha Wroten, to also oversee the office buildings located in the same complex.

“When we took over, the buildings were 30 percent occupied. Now they are 100 percent occupied,” he said, adding those non-adjacent office buildings would not be included in the demolition.

South Louisiana residents Richard Lanasa and John Bordes own JR Real Property. They purchased the Community Hospital property from K&J Ventures in June 2022. Merit Health sold the buildings and property to K&J Ventures in 2018.