No sale for contaminated former hospital site

Despite a high bid of $2 million, the former Caritas Southwood Hospital property in Norfolk failed to sell at auction recently because the bidding did not reach the seller's reserve price.

The almost-90-acre facility, which opened in the 1920s and was once known as the Pondville State Hospital, was rezoned in recent years for a development as a senior housing complex but the plan fizzled when environmental contamination was discovered at the site. Any new owner of the site would be required to clean up an oil spill on the property, officials said.

The Town of Norfolk has assessed the Route 1A campus at $15 million. The owner, Caritas Christi Health Care, is New England's second largest health care system.

-- Michele Morgan Bolton