A year after closing, Orlando Health officials plan to tear down Hubbard House, which was used as a place for out-of-towners to stay while their loved ones were being treated nearby.
Officials with Orlando Health told News 6 a surface parking lot will go in its place. Hubbard House closed in December 2018, after reports of it needing costly repairs.
On Wednesday, crews with OUC were in front of the building shutting off water to the half-acre property.
In a statement to News 6, an Orlando health spokesperson said, in part:
“The parking area will make it more convenient for our patients, families and visitors of ORMC’s emergency department and level one trauma center, and it will add free self-parking options to the existing valet-only lot.”
Orlando Health officials have not said when exactly the building will be coming down and that parking lot will be going in.
Since opening in 1994, the Hubbard House and its 17 rooms had helped thousands of families looking for a place to stay while loved ones recovered. It was funded by donations from employees, local business and the community.
“We never turn a family down for inability to pay,” General Manager Peggy Smith told News 6 in 2014. “It’s for them, it’s for their needs. It’s not about a financial burden on them. They have enough of that.”