Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice to sell its Portsmouth headquarters

PORTSMOUTH – Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice is selling its Portsmouth headquarters and looking for a new location.

The nonprofit home health agency announced it has placed its more than 20,000-square-foot headquarters, located at 1184 East Main Road, on the market with Kirby Properties LLC. The real estate company has listed the building for $3.2 million.

“The contemporary model for home health requires a much smaller footprint than it did 28 years ago when we bought this building,” said Jennifer Fairbank, CEO of Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice. “For example, a lot of our space was once used for medical supply storage and housing thousands of paper medical records. Today, most supplies are shipped directly to patients and all of our records are electronic. We simply don’t need to be heating and maintaining a building of this size.”

The nonprofit said it is looking for a “more appropriately sized” office space on Aquidneck Island, and will keep its small branch office in North Kingstown and a supply station in Swansea.

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“To continue our legacy of serving all who need us, we are focusing on strategic growth within a challenging health care environment,” said Mark Hough, chair of the nonprofit’s board.

Visiting Nurse Home & Hospice provides home health care and hospice services for people of all ages with chronic and terminal illnesses at the end of their lives. It employs about 200 people and serves patients in most of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

“We are so grateful to serve this island,” Fairbank said. “For the past 73 years, you have welcomed us into your homes at some of the most difficult times imaginable. We want to assure everyone that our mission and vision have not changed, and patient care will not be impacted during this exciting transition. We are confident that our community will continue to support our mission for years to come.”

The Portsmouth building is located on 1.5 acres of land and includes two parking lots and a large lawn. Steve Kirby, principal broker and co-founder of Kirby Properties, said there are “many possibilities for customization” for the property.

Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.