MIDDLETOWN — Middletown Regional Hospital leaders decided Thursday to rebuild in the city — on Ohio 122 east of Interstate 75 — after a futile, 1 -year effort to build community support for a site farther south at Greentree Road.

        “The board was convinced that this location offered the best opportunity for everyone to win,” vice president Larry James said.

        The resolution to go to Ohio 122 could eventually bring more than 4,000 jobs to the interchange — a major win for Middletown.

        “We're thrilled,” City Council member Nancy Nix said. “We've been working on this for so long. ... It's economic development for Middletown, not to mention health care.”

        However, it hinges on coming up with an economic development agreement with Middletown and other government entities in the next 60 days. That will spell out who pays for infrastructure such as improvements to the I-75 exit.

        Both of the hospital's boards of directors voted unanimously for Ohio 122, Mr. James said, after being deadlocked since June.

        The debate over where to build a replacement for the landlocked McKnight Drive hospital has dragged out for 18 months. Because of that, the new facility will probably not open until 2007, Mr. James said — a year later than originally planned.

        The boards announced plans in the spring of 2001 to move to Greentree and I-75 in Warren County's Turtlecreek Township. That site fell out of favor after neighbors and the county commissioners opposed it.

        Early this year, the hospital began looking at building on Greentree just west of I-75 in Monroe.

        That, however, would have cost Middletown its second-largest employer, and city leaders began pushing for Ohio 122.

        Plans for a 550-acre campus of health-related business and education partners alongside the hospital will be transplanted to the new location, Mr. James said. “Our vision has not changed.”

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