By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Butler County United Way expects to know before the end of this month whether it can acquire the old Mercy Hospital Hamilton facility to convert into a social services and community resource center.

A study by the Sharonville architectural firm McGill Smith Punshon Inc. is nearly complete, said Maureen Noe, president and CEO of the Butler County United Way.

United Way has been working on this project with Mercy Health Partners, which owns the hospital, and Butler County and Hamilton officials.

The county sees it as an opportunity to centralize social services so that families can visit two or more social service agencies in one trip.

"The goal would be not to have it be cost-prohibitive for social service agencies to lease space there," Noe said.

The feasibility study, which Mercy Health Partners is paying for, will indicate how much it would cost to convert and maintain the former hospital as office space for social services and other tenants.

"It should give us a real blueprint on whether we can move forward with this project," said Ohio Rep. Greg Jolivette, R-Hamilton.

The hospital has a similar amount of floor space as the Butler County Government Services Center in Hamilton

Craig Rambo, president of McGill Smith Punshon, said the study will evaluate the facility's structural integrity, the costs of altering the building to accommodate tenants and the parking needs.

A small portion of the 110-year-old hospital, which stopped accepting patients in mid-April 2001, is occupied by a telecommunications center and medical-records and occupational-health staff, the county coroner's morgue, a pharmacy and an adult day care center operated by Cincinnati Area Senior Services.

In addition, the campus has a fully occupied office building.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com