By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The opportunity for the Safe Haven campus was presented in 2012 after the former Southeast Louisiana Mental Health Hospital was closed at the site in Mandeville.
The parish sought to purchase the land and was able to do so for $15 million, acquiring the 293 acres.
Since then, Brister recommended selling 99 acres to the Mandeville rec district known as Pelican Park, bringing in $1 million, before they sold the buildings occupied by Northlake Behavioral Hospital for $6.7 million.
Rabalais said those deals helped the parish already recoup a nice chunk of the investment in the land. There will be other financial positives for the parish in the way of wetlands mitigation since 75 acres of land there has been approved, something that will save the parish thousands to millions of dollars in years to come when they need to construct buildings where there are current wetlands.
“We feel like we have done a lot with the property already, and we already know that some of the land will be used for the Mandeville bypass road that will be constructed from Pelican Park to Hwy. 1088,” Rabalais explained.