Deal still not reached on former hospital site

Greg Larry, Cumberland Times-News, Md.
·3 min read

Jun. 12—CUMBERLAND — Negotiations between the city of Cumberland and a development company for plans to construct more than 250 housing units on land formerly occupied by Memorial Hospital still remain up in the air as a final agreement has yet to be reached between the parties, officials said Tuesday.

A contract outlining the basic plans for the $36 million project was entered into by the Cumberland Economic Development Corp. and principals with RAZ Development in February 2023. However, the parties remain unable to agree on the contingencies proposed in the document, leading to the inability to draft a final plan that Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss and the City Council could approve that would allow the deal to move forward.

The mayor and council had a closed-door meeting Tuesday on the topic, which, according to the agenda, was held to "discuss the development of parcels on the former Memorial Hospital site and to receive legal advice regarding the same."

The original plan for the 9-acre tract was for RAZ Development, represented by Zak Elyasi of Bethesda and Paul Kelly Jr. of Cumberland, to oversee the construction of two four-level structures containing approximately 125 apartments each. In addition, single-family homes would be built on the surrounding land.

The original contingencies included in the document called for the city to contribute 10% of the cost of the project, up to $3.6 million, with RAZ securing financing for the rest of the cost.

Following the closed-door portion of the meeting, the mayor and council, as well as officials with the CEDC, convened a public meeting on a variety of topics impacting the downtown. At the conclusion of that meeting, the Times-News asked if progress has been made on the Memorial Hospital housing project.

"We are still working through the process," Morriss said. "We are not sure exactly what the future will bring."

Matt Miller, CEDC executive director, said, "At the moment, from our standpoint, we are still under a contract with RAZ and we are working through that process. We don't have a clear path forward at this point in time and that is sort of why we are trying to assess what is best for that.

"We are still working with RAZ to try to formulate that and we will continue to do so until we have answers."

Exact sticking points between the parties have not been disclosed. However, city officials said they cannot open up a bidding process to entertain new offers until the current parties decide to no longer pursue a deal together.

"We can't make that decision (to rebid the project) until we have reached some sort of conclusion with the contract that is currently in place," said Miller.

Miller said following the meeting that the current development contract with RAZ did not include dates or time restrictions that would make it null and void at some point.

Efforts to reach Kelly for comment were unsuccessful.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter @GregLarryCTN.