City Spokesperson Confirms Progress in St. Luke Hospital Cleanup

A City spokesperson told Pasadena Now on Tuesday that the owners of a dilapidated hospital have made progress in cleaning up the site.

In June Pasadena Now reported that the building was surrounded by overgrown vegetation and rife with broken windows and doors, tagged with graffiti and a target of constant vandalism.

Since that time, the property owner Mehdi Boulour has relinquished the building to family, which has worked extensively with the City to improve the situation.

“Our goal is to get the family to maintain a nuisance-free property and keep it in good condition including landscaping, security, fencing, and boarding windows,” Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian told Pasadena Now. 

“They have complied and continue to cooperate and coordinate with city personnel from various departments. The security has been successful in detaining trespassers with negative intent.”

Boulour’s Denley Investments company purchased the property in 2007 and rented it out to film production companies for some time. Locals later alleged the owner had neglected to take care of the building.

Videos on Youtube showed ghost hunters trespassing inside the building, which is laden with graffiti.

According to an email obtained by Pasadena Now in June, Code Compliance Director Jon Pollard discovered numerous unrestricted points of entry into the hospital building, including various doors that are unlocked, as well as basement and first floor windows that have been completely broken out.

Similarly, newly-installed security bars have been completely wrenched off the building. There is clear evidence of vandalism throughout the interior of the property.

It is expected to take extensive, and expensive work, to restore the building and bring it up to code. 

The hospital was built on the 11-acre site in 1933 and shut down in 2002 due to financial troubles. It has been vacant since it was shuttered and was used in several films.

In 2013 the hospital was briefly considered by the City as an urgent care facility, but that proposal never really got off the ground after officials deemed the location outdated.

The City briefly explored, as one of several options, using the site as an emergency facility during COVID-19 pandemic, but found the site unusable.