Christus St. Patrick Hospital in Lake Charles announced last week it is dissolving its partnership with Lafayette developer and retired cancer physician Glenn Stewart in an upscale assisted-living retirement community set to open soon in Lake Charles.
The website for the development, Christus Village, indicates it has 80 individual living apartments and 20 chateaus targeting a 55 and older demographic.
Christus St. Patrick's involvement in the Christus Village project included marketing services and management of the so-called continuing care retirement community. Operated by the larger Christus Health, a Catholic faith-based group that owns more than 40 hospitals in six states and Mexico, Christus St. Patrick does not identify Stewart by name in the press release announcing the end of the partnership, but an inference to the troubled developer can be gleaned from the hospital's announcement:
CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital's vision for the project was not entirely aligned with that of the project developer. After careful deliberation and prayerful discernment, CHRISTUS St. Patrick has come to believe that it will be in the best interest of the hospital if the organization is no longer associated with the project.
"As a Catholic organization, what's most important to us is that our mission, vision and core values align with the companies and projects with which we are involved," said CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital Administrator Donald H Lloyd II.
Laurie Hamilton, a Lake Charles resident whose mother put down a $10,000 deposit to reserve a unit at Christus Village (residents must also pay an up-front cost of $220,000 plus $3,000 per month), asked for a refund when they found out that Stewart, not the Catholic faith-based organization, was the owner. Hamilton says she had heard of the Lafayette developer's Mardi Gras arrest for second-degree battery on the daughter of the Independent's publishers and his other infamous exploits from relatives in the Hub City.
A Christus spokeswoman says the hospital began the Christus Village project as owner in April 2007. Stewart, through Lake Charles Gardens LLC, purchased the development in October 2010.
- Walter Pierce and Leslie Turk