A fundraising foundation for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is contemplating whether to buy a former hospital in the city that has been closed for nearly a year. The foundation has already purchased two smaller parcels located behind the former Sacred Heart Hospital’s 24-acre main campus.
Sacred Heart Hospital still stands tall overlooking Eau Claire’s busy Clairemont Avenue. But since March 2024, the parking lot has been vacant and the windows dark. The hospital’s closure was part of a “complete exit from the Western Wisconsin Region” by Hospital Sisters Health System, or HSHS, that also meant the end of the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls.
This week, Eau Claire TV station WQOW reported Blugold Real Estate, a branch of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation, was looking into buying the former hospital and its large campus.
In an emailed statement, Blugold Real Estate Executive Director Curt Krizan told WPR it’s “too early in the process to speculate on any details” about the talks between the foundation and HSHS or what the property might be used for.
“Blugold Real Estate was invited to consider purchasing the former Sacred Heart Hospital building site,” Krizan said. “Our Board of Directors is conducting its due diligence, and if Blugold Real Estate acquires the building, we will share additional details at that time.”
Eau Claire Community Development Director Aaron White told WPR the city is excited about the possibilities for the former hospital site and said the university could be a good fit.
“Our concern always is going to be, what does it become?” White said. “It’s built for specific use, so that can make it challenging for repurposing, but there’s a lot of canvas to play with in in terms of redesign and reimagining that campus.”
White said there’s a strong need for housing in Eau Claire and the property could be a candidate for new housing projects, though demolishing the former hospital and turning the campus into a greenfield site is “a very expensive proposition.”
“So, I don’t know that you’ll see something like that occur,” White said. “But, there are really a lot of options that could go on something with space like that.”
The former hospital is set in a cluster of existing UW-Eau Claire properties, including six student dormitories, the college’s physical education building along with the schools football field and outdoor track.
Eau Claire property tax records show Blugold Real Estate has purchased two smaller parcels, totaling around five acres, from HSHS in October. That land is the site of two parking lots, located behind the main hospital campus and along a road leading to the UWEC dorms.
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Krizan and others with the foundation and university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the October sale.
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