City Officials to Invite Riverside Owner to Council Meeting

"The ball is now in Dr. Nasir's court," Trenton Councilwoman MaryEllen McLeod said about Iqbal Nasir, owner of .

Trenton officials agreed to invite Nasir to a future city council meeting to find out his plans for the property at 2171 W. Jefferson Ave at Tuesday's city council meeting.

Mayor Kyle Stack shared a recent conversation she had with Bob Riney, chief operating officer for Henry Ford Health System, with council members, in which Riney "advised that HFHS had conveyed in writing a " to Nasir.

The deed modification allows Nasir to construct and operate a long-term acute care hospital on the property, according to a memo written to city officials from David Lee, senior vice president and general counsel for HFHS, on Sept. 4.

"HFHS is completely comfortable with removing the deed restriction that would allow Dr. Nasir to construct and operate an LTACH on this site, provided the LTACH would not be expanded/transitioned to a full-service acute care hospital in the future," Lee stated in the memo, which was received and placed on file at the meeting.

Lee's memo stated the following uses of the property would be precluded:

• Acute care hospital
• Any type of surgi-center
• Imaging center to include diagnostics, ultrasound, CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, PET scanner, etc.
• Outpatient rehabilitation to include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy
• Retail pharmacy
• Free-standing, full-service reference laboratory
• Medical office building with complete diagnostic services

"Let's find out what Dr. (Iqbal) Nasir wants," McLeod said. "Is he going to move forward or not."

Stack said she would invite Nasir to the next Trenton City Council meeting at 8 p.m. on Sept. 17 and/or ask him to submit, in writing, his intentions for the property.

Stack said she has attempted to contact Nasir, but was unsuccessful as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

During Stack's conversation with Riney, he made it clear that HFHS cannot demolish the structures as they not only have limited resources, they also no longer own the property, according to Stack.

"He did however indicate that in the event the proposed development does not take place, HFHS would offer their assistance to the City of Trenton to help locate funding and resources to facilitate the demolition and clean up of the property," Stack said.