A nonprofit group has purchased the former DePaul hospital complex in Norfolk and plans build a new youth center for after school and summer programs for 13- to 18-year-old students.
“We’re pouring our heart, mind, soul and body — everything we’ve got — into this,” said Chuck McPhillips, chair of board of directors for Next Step To Success.
The development, slated to be named St. Vincent DePaul House, would include a new campus and home-like atmosphere to house the group’s after-school and summer programs, according to McPhillips. Preliminary plans for the development include a series of smaller buildings for a gym, media center, learning spaces and activity rooms. The campus will also include ample green space and a regulation soccer field across 9 of the site’s 15 acres.
McPhillips said there will be no overnight stays at the site and the traffic impact will be “almost zero” because the group already transports students to other after school programming next door at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. The program is running out of space at the church’s social hall and classroom space, he said.
Plans for the youth center come after a previous proposal to transform the former DePaul Medical Center buildings into 500 luxury apartments fell apart. Last month, an official with Marathon Group said the developer was no longer pursuing the luxury apartment project due to national market conditions, including high interest rates and continued construction supply chain snarls.
The site was the 1944 relocation of the first public hospital in Norfolk — The Hospital of St. Vincent De Paul which was established in 1856, according to city documents. Bon Secours, which last operated the hospital, closed the facility in 2021 after patient numbers dwindled.
Bon Secours and McPhillips declined to name a sales price for the complex, but McPhillips called it a “fair price.” He said the cost of demolishing the current buildings and the elevated cost of construction will amount to a “significant investment.”
The six-parcel site between Granby Street and Newport Avenue on Kingsley Lane was last valued at over $3.6 million this year, according to city documents.
A statement from Bon Secours said the group remained “steadfast” in its effort to only sell the property to a user that would mirror the hospital’s legacy of commitment and service.
“Bon Secours is glad that St. Vincent DePaul House, LLC plans to utilize the former DePaul Medical Center property at its highest and best use for the community and for the neighborhood,” the statement said.
Next Step To Success was founded two years ago via the James Barry Robinson Trust, to reduce poverty with a goal to halve poverty in Norfolk in a generation. It became an independent nonprofit last year, though it is still supported by the Robinson Trust, according to the group’s website.
McPhillips said the plans for the youth center are not the first such redevelopment for the group. James Barry Robinson Trust founded the Saint Patrick Catholic School in Larchmont in 2005.
McPhillips said the DePaul project is for a completely different program but the group’s goals of creating a new space for youth advancement while also being a good neighbor are the same as with Saint Patrick.
McPhillips said Next Step To Success, with support from various other organizations, seeks to try and help build noncognitive skills — such as consciousness, perseverance and resilience — that can help an individual succeed and improve the world around them.
Plans to open the youth center are still a ways off. The DePaul site was rezoned for apartments earlier this year, so Next Step To Success will have to seek a rezoning, according to McPhillips. He said they will face the hurdles other developers are facing and, depending on costs, could potentially have to sell off the remaining 6 acres of the site beyond the 9 acres they will be using to help pay for the project.
He said the group’s goal to halve poverty in Norfolk over a generation is ambitious, but possible if the community can pull together to give young people the resources to succeed.
“They need to be fortified with the belief that they can succeed and fortified with the character skills that will enable them to succeed and that every young person deserves a fair opportunity, a fair chance to earn success,” McPhillips said. “And if we can provide that, then we’ll intercept that cycle of poverty that we’ve had for too long here in Norfolk.”
Ian Munro, 757-447-4097, ian.munro@virginiamedia.com
