ORANGE, NJ-Metrovest Equities Inc. has acquired the former Hospital Center at Orange, also known at Orange Memorial Hospital. The seller of the property was Cathedral Healthcare System, which had operated the facility from 1998 until last year.

The financial terms of the transaction, including the sale price, were not disclosed. What the New York City-based Metrovest has in mind for its latest acquisition, which encompasses 12 buildings totaling more than 400,000 sf on seven acres at 188 South Essex Ave. here, is to turn the shuttered complex into a residential condominium community of approximately 400 units. Company officials say the conversion will cost more than $75 million.

"The acquisition of the Hospital Center at Orange fits into our strategic plan of acquiring well-located institutional properties and readapting them for residential use," says George Filopoulos, president of the real estate investment and development company. "We are continuously looking for new opportunities throughout the New York metro area."

The Newark-based Cathedral Healthcare System had operated the hospital from 1998 until last year. Citing changes in federal and state healthcare reimbursements policies for annual operating losses that had reached the $14-million mark, company officials in late 2003 asked the New Jersey Department of Health for permission to shut it down. Cathedral Healthcare, which currently operates four hospitals in metro Essex County, ended in-patient service at the Hospital Center of Orange in January 2004. Emergency room services were shut down later in the year.

HCO is the second major hospital-to-residential conversion Metrovest has going on in the Garden State right now. The firm is in the process of turning the former Jersey City Medical Center, whose operations were relocated to a new facility within the waterfront city, into the Beacon. That 14-acre project is carrying a price tag in the $350-million range.