Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Attorneys for the city of Shawano are drafting an offer to the heirs of the original Shawano Medical Center property who have yet to sign off on waiving a deed restriction that would open the property up for development.
The hospital is relocating later this year adjacent to ThedaCare Physicians on County Road B.
The city and ThedaCare entered into an agreement to market the former hospital property for development. A deed restriction attached to the property more than 100 years ago when the property was donated to the city has held up those plans.
Susan Smalley donated a roughly 3-acre park property to the city in 1901, according to a news article in the April 30, 1931, edition of the Shawano County Journal about plans for a hospital on the site.
According to the deed restriction, the property reverts back to the heirs if it is used for anything other than a park.
The city had hoped the heirs would agree to a quit-claim deed, but since then “there have been some discussions and negotiations,” City Administrator Brian Knapp said.
“We’re involved in producing an offer to the heirs to address their interests in the property,” he said.
Knapp wouldn’t say whether that was specifically a financial offer.
The appraised value of the original 3.5-acre parcel is $875,000, Knapp said.
The site became home to Shawano Medical Center in 1931.
Officials have no explanation for why a hospital was allowed to locate on the property, and there is nothing in the record that shows the deed restriction was ever waived.
SMC purchased additional land for expansion over the years, and the hospital campus now occupies about 10 acres. The deed restriction applies only to the original three.
City officials hired the law firm of Davis and Kuelthau in December 2012 to track down the heirs.
Eleven heirs were identified and contacted early last year.
The list of heirs includes no direct blood relatives of Susan Smalley, who died in New Jersey in 1909, according to a genealogy chart provided to the city by Davis and Kuelthau.
Instead, the heirs are the descendants of the second marriage of Georgianna Hoadley, of New York, who was previously married to Susan’s son, William. The park property was part of a marital settlement when the first marriage ended.