The Salinas Valley Health Board puts up a vacant lot in Marina for possible sale – and housing.

As the former Fort Ord was divvied up for development since it closed in 1994, in 2008 a vacant lot next door to the Veterans Transition Center on Imjin Parkway in Marina was put up for sale. At the time, Salinas Valley Health District officials thought it would make a good location for a medical building. They bought it for $2.75 million in 2010.

Eighteen years later, the health care landscape has changed, as well as the district’s financial needs. On May 28 the SVH Board of Directors voted 4-0 to declare the 5.6-acre lot – now valued at $7.5 million – as surplus land, in accordance with California’s Surplus Land Act, giving the district the ability to offer it for sale with priority given to affordable housing development.

A 60-day period began on June 1, during which the district may entertain offers from interested parties. If any entity does make an offer, the district will have 90 days to negotiate in good faith the sale of the land.

Under the law, the district must send notices to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Housing Authority of the County of Monterey and affordable housing developers registered with HCD. Others that must be notified include parks and recreation and school districts.

If a buyer intends to build housing, at least 25 percent of the units must be designated for very low- to low-income households. If there are multiple developers, first priority goes to the proposal with the greatest number of affordable units.

At the time SVH acquired the lot, there were limited health care facilities serving Marina. And although the lot isn’t located within district boundaries, it wasn’t far from its boundary north of Reservation Road.

A report from SVH legal counsel Matthew Ottone noted “significant development” that has occurred since 2010, including the opening of the Montage Wellness Center and MoGo urgent care across Imjin Parkway, plus the Major General William H. Gourley VA-DoD Outpatient Clinic, just a mile away on 9th Street. The memo also acknowledges the anticipated construction of a facility by Kaiser Permanente, which purchased land in The Dunes near Second Avenue and Divarty Street in 2025.

The recommendation to the board was that with adequate health care infrastructure now in Marina, SVH should focus its resources on the Salinas Valley.

“Salinas Valley Health has done incredible work expanding access to quality health care services in the Salinas Valley, South County and with our mobile clinic,” a spokesperson for SVH says. “As we enter an even more financially challenging environment with plans to expand our emergency department, the Marina property is a valuable asset. The board has triggered the necessary process to explore options that would advance our mission in the community.”

The SVH Foundation is currently conducting a $10 million capital campaign to replace an existing administration building with an all-new 40-bed emergency department.

The current emergency department, built in 1980, was designed to handle 15,000 patients a year. As of last year the 17-bed department was seeing 65,000 visits annually. The goal is to start construction in 2027 and open in 2030.