CHAMPION — Mercy Health remains in the evaluation phase of what could be a multi-year process to develop land adjacent to Kent State University at Trumbull into a health care campus that might include relocating St. Joseph Warren Hospital.

It’s been nearly 11 months since the KSU trustees approved the 63-acre sale to the health care provider and 10 months since Mercy Health made its plans public.

Ohio lawmakers in December approved land conveyance legislation, inserted into a bill by state Rep. Michael O’Brien, D-Warren, so that when the time comes, the governor is authorized to execute the deed transferring the state’s right, title and interest in the land.

The latest development is Mercy Health starting talks with Warren officials to treat wastewater from the site in Champion. Those negotiations, however, have been termed preliminary.

A spokesman for Mercy Health-Youngstown said it remains committed “to the ever-changing health needs of those in the Mahoning Valley.”

“The health system continues to work through the planning and due diligence process for any future development in Champion Township, a process that spans months, if not years, between evaluation, development, approval and implementation,” said Jonathon Fauvie, public relations and communications manager for Mercy Health.

Fauvie said when Mercy Health announced its proposal that the campus “could mean a number of things and include a number of services based on the needs of the community. We will enhance the care in the community because we are landlocked at the current site.”

St. Joseph Warren Hospital on Eastland Avenue sits on about 8.5 acres, but is landlocked and cannot grow.

Fauvie declined to comment on Mercy Health and Enterprise Park, the proposed medical, educational and residential campus north of the Eastwood Mall. The Cafaro Company is developing Enterprise Park. Mercy Health had at one point expressed interest in locating there.

Cafaro Company spokesman Joe Bell said the company is in talks with Mercy Health and other health care providers “to hash out who will be providing what role in the final determination about what Enterprise Park looks like.”

It remains premature as to what exactly the new campus in Champion will entail. In October, Fauvie said it would be a center for services driven by the growing health care needs of Trumbull County.

“What goes into site selection goes back to the needs of the community, what impacts the different care sites have on the community. It goes into sustainability,” Fauvie said. “These are decisions that are not made lightly. There is a lot of consideration, a lot of thought behind planning new points of care. It goes to the investment, but also there are health care needs that people need met.”

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin last month said Mercy Health has determined it would be moving. Hospital leaders assured him the system plans to keep a presence on Eastland Avenue but did not provide any details.

The fate of the Eastland Avenue facility is a point of concern for at least one member of city council, 6th Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Saffold.

What Mercy Health wants to avoid happening is another St. Joseph Riverside Hospital, which fell into dire disrepair in the years after the hospital chain sold it in the 1990s to merge Riverside with Warren General Hospital on Eastland Avenue.

The facility has gone through several owners and really began to deteriorate after 2010. Its title is now held by Ohio in a state of forfeiture.

If St. Joe’s is part of the mix at the new campus, Mercy Health would redevelop the hospital “to benefit the greater community,” Fauvie said.

Fauvie last year cautioned it’s also premature to say what type of redevelopment would happen.

rselak@tribtoday.com