Florida State University and the City of Tallahassee say they’ve reached a deal on the sale of Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.
The Tallahassee City Commission voted 3-2 in October for city staff to enter into negotiations, though talks had been ongoing at the time. FSU President Richard McCullough announced the tentative terms Tuesday.
In an email to university employees, he said FSU will pay Tallahassee $109 million over 30 years for the hospital’s property and assets. The school will also commit $100 million to facility upgrades and $150 million to improvements for clinical and academic purposes over the next 10 years.
“This pending agreement is the result of positive collaboration with the City and a shared vision for the future of health care, education, and research in our region,” McCullough said in a release announcing the MOU.
The deal is not yet finalized. It must be approved by the Tallahassee City Commission.
"This agreement charts a bold, transformative path forward,” said Mayor John Dailey in a press release from the city backing the move.
“Thanks to the dedication of professionals who refuse to accept the status quo, the future of healthcare in Tallahassee will be better. By aligning our hospital with one of the state's premier universities to create an academic health center, we are redefining healthcare in a way that positively impacts the lives of residents locally and across the region."
The potential TMH sale has been the subject of at times heated debate over the past several months. One of the loudest critics of the deal has been Tallahassee City Commission Jeremy Matlow. When asked about the announcement, he said he does not think the sale price is high enough.
“What's being proposed is only $109 million at zero interest over 30 years, so the public that owns that hospital will only receive just over $3 million a year. I think that's just that's a bad use of public assets, and we need to make sure that people who own the hospital get what it's worth so we can reinvest that money into our community,” Matlow said.
Tallahassee Commissioner Curtis Richardson said he’s glad they came to terms, as he says it will improve healthcare in the region.
“I hope that this will encourage FSU and TMH now to finalize their agreement so that we can move forward with making this happen,” he said.
In a statement to WFSU, Commissioner Jack Porter said she opposes the sale.
"I want to see improved healthcare and an academic health center in Tallahassee—neither of which requires us to sell the hospital," she said. "But selling one of our greatest public assets without an appraisal for pennies on the dollar with so little opportunity for meaningful community engagement is a bad deal for Tallahassee."
A request for comment is pending with Tallahassee Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox.
Reports of a potential sale of TMH to FSU being in the works emerged in March 2025. A final public hearing will likely be scheduled in early 2026.