Nov 21, 2006 - From the Brunswick Beacon

More than 6,000 community-generated support letters will be included Wednesday with Novant Health's certificate of need application for a new $100 million hospital. Novant is expected to submit the application to the CON section of the North Carolina Division of Facility Services by the Nov. 15 deadline.
If approved by the state, Brunswick County will boast a new, state-of-the-art, 92-bed hospital. The decision to replace the hospital, rather than add the state-approved 32-bed expansion, was first announced in July by the Brunswick County Hospital Authority. Since then, lawyers for both the authority and Novant have been working on a new contract and terms between the two entities to meet the Nov. 15 deadline.
The new contract essentially transfers ownership of the land on which the hospital currently sits in order for Novant Health to meet the deadline for a replacement hospital as the sole applicant. The former lease agreement, which was established at a 30-year length of term, will still be honored but in a different capacity. When the new hospital is complete, Novant will then be the sovereign entity running the hospital.
The current hospital property will revert back to the authority when the new hospital is complete. Rather than continuing to pay their annual $50,000 rent, Novant's rent money will be placed in a trust to serve as a scholarship for Brunswick Community College. By Caroline Curran