Vista Medical Center East owner American Healthcare Systems (AHS) plans to sell a portion of the hospital’s parking lot south of Glen Flora Avenue in Waukegan to pay delinquent property taxes of approximately $2.1 million and avoid foreclosure on the hospital property itself.
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AHS owner Michael Sarian said Monday he plans to sell the portion of the parking lot Vista still owns to remedy unpaid property taxes from 2023 and 2024. Taxes for 2025 are not due until June.
“We’re going to sell land we don’t need,” he said. “We’re listing it for sale and plan to close very soon to pay the taxes. Hopefully, there will be something left over to help with other expenses.”
Sarian hopes the sale of the unneeded parking lot land will remedy some of Vista’s current financial woes, which became a problem shortly after AHS acquired the hospital at the northwest corner of Glen Flora Avenue and Sheridan Road from Quororum Health Corp in July of 2023.
With parking available on the north side of Glen Flora and wrapping around the building, Sarian said the south lot is not needed. Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega said the south lot contains four separate legal parcels.
Vega said the two parcels at either end of the parking lot are owned by LES Investments, which purchased unpaid property taxes and received title to the land through foreclosure. The middle lots owe unpaid taxes of more than $14,000 which would be paid when the land is sold.
AHS has until at least July 10 to complete its sale of the middle parcels of the parking lot and cure the unpaid taxes on the hospital property of approximately $2.1 million. A foreclosure hearing is scheduled then in Lake County Court in Waukegan.
After Vista did not pay the 2023 property taxes of about $1.1 million, it was purchased by FNA DZ, a company that purchases delinquent property taxes as an investment. No one paid the 2024 taxes, making Lake County the lienholder.
Though Vega said Vista has until June 15, 2028, to pay the 2024 taxes — interest accumulates at 12% per year — if FNA acquires the property for unpaid taxes, the county’s tax lien is eliminated.
Unaware of AHS’s latest plan to pay the delinquent property taxes, Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said in an email Tuesday that he hopes the hospital will soon pay its outstanding water bill to the city.
“We support lasting solutions to the hospital’s outstanding obligations to the city while also ensuring that Waukegan and Lake County continue to have access to a dependable hospital,” he said. “The region deserves a healthcare system that is stable, responsive, and fully committed to meeting the needs of our families.”
When AHS purchased Vista from Quororum, it bought the Vista corporation rather than its assets, leaving it with the debts accumulated by Quororum.
As he works to sell the portion of the parking lot Vista still owns, Sarian is also involved in a pair of lawsuits in Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami Dade County, with five hospitals he partially owns there and a doctor’s group, according to the complaint filed there.
Though the hospitals and doctors’ group hope to wrest financial control from Sarian, according to the complaint, he said he anticipates all of the Florida litigation to be resolved shortly
“Very, very soon there will be a global settlement with all the parties,” Sarian said. “There is going to be a resolution so we can put this behind us.”