ProMedica gets site by hospital

Health system trades property in Starlite Plaza for land it leases

Starlite Plaza on Monroe Street.

ProMedica, which in June purchased the Starlite Plaza on Monroe Street for $7 million, has swapped a small parcel on the 11-acre shopping center property in Sylvania, for a piece of land near its ProMedica Toledo Hospital complex in Toledo.

On Feb. 28 ProMedica “sold” a 0.6-acre property at the shopping plaza, at 5700 Monroe, to Joseph Starlite Plaza LLC.

The limited liability company was created in July and is controlled by Toledo’s Joseph family, owners of Joseph’s Beverage Co. on Talmadge Road.

At one time, the family owned a chain of grocery stores in the Toledo area.

Simultaneously, Joseph Brothers Co., using its Joseph Realty Co., sold a 2.8-acre property at 2061 W. Central Ave. at ProMedica Parkway that borders three ProMedica Toledo Hospital properties.

The Starlite Plaza property is leased to Bennett Enterprises, which operates a Ralphie’s restaurant on the site.

The Central Avenue property is leased to ProMedica, which operates the W.W. Knight Family Medicine Residency complex there.

The sale price for each property was $2,295,000.

But Tedra White, a ProMedica spokesman, said those were just valuations.

No money actually changed hands.

“This was a simple tax-free exchange between us and Joseph Brothers,” Ms. White said.

“We had been leasing that building and rather than continue to lease, it just made sense to try and buy it outright,” she added.

In return, the Joseph family gets a prime restaurant building at Starlite Plaza with a stable tenant — Ralphie’s.

Toledo-based ProMedica bought Starlite Plaza last year from Brixmor Property Group of New York, a subsidiary of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI LP of New York. ProMedica said it eventually plans to redevelop the 44-year-old shopping center complex into a medical facility.

ProMedica officials have been tight-lipped about what the health-care and hospital giant plans to build at Starlite.

But Rob Armstrong, vice president of Bennett Enterprises, said sources have told him that ProMedica intends to construct medical office buildings for doctors and patient services.

The tenants on the east side of the Starlite property — including Dave’s Running Shop and the Buckeye Store and More — have been told that their portion of the complex will stay as it is.

The shops on the west side of the property and the former grocery store in the center of the property are expected to be torn down.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.