GROVES — A fresh start for a former medical facility in Groves is on the horizon.

For more than two years, the former Renaissance Hospital, 5500 39^th St., has sat vacant after previous owners left the facility mired in financial woes.

A new owner, who has not been named, is in the process of buying the facility.

“Hopefully, in the next several months, the property will change hands,” Groves City Manager D. Sosa said.

The building, once remodeled, will be a medical type of facility but not a hospital.

The former Doctors Hospital operated successfully for decades before changing ownership, and name, to Renaissance after Steve and Eileen Nguyen acquired it. The couple had been in the seafood business and in 2009 opened the doors to the community with the mantra of providing quality healthcare.

But by 2011 employees came forward saying they hadn’t been paid in months. Soon after those employees began filing their complaints of theft of wages with the Groves Police Department. By January 2012 inspectors with the Texas Department of State Health Services began an on-site investigation.

Because of mounting financial woes, new management was brought in, headed up by Woodrow “Woody” Moore, administrator with Foundation Surgical Hospital Affiliates. The company made major changes to personnel such as the termination of Eileen Nguyen, former chief executive officer, as well as the termination of former clinical and administrative personnel. An aggressive plan was put into place after it was learned that Medicare would not allow the hospital to participate in the program until deficiencies were corrected and ambulances were diverted to other area hospitals.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, who took ownership from the Nguyens, hired Moore to get the hospital back on track, Sosa said.

Bliss, and the hospital, lasted about a year before the facility was abruptly closed in April 2013 and sold again.

Jason LeDay of St. Anthony Hospital in Houston took ownership but never showed up in Groves. Calls to Renaissance at that time were forwarded to a voice mail saying, “You have reached St. Anthony Hospital” and “If you are calling in regards to Renaissance Hospital” to

Leave a message. Renaissance in Groves and St. Anthony Hospital in Houston were both headed up by CEO Jason LeDay. By January 2014, St. Anthony’s was also closed.

Utilities to the closed facility were eventually shut off.

Sosa is happy the once successful hospital will see better days.

“We’re thrilled someone will take the property, remodel it and put it back in some type of use as a medical facility,” Sosa said.

E-mail: mary.meaux@panews.com

Twitter: MaryMeauxPANews