PENSACOLA, Fla. — It’s full steam ahead for the demolition of the old Baptist Hospital in Pensacola.

In November, the city council approved the contracts for the demolition and decommissioning of the buildings.

Residents near the property say they just want transparency and want their voices heard.

For people like Patrick Cardwell, the demolition of the old Baptist Hospital on Moreno Street hits close to home.

“They kept me alive a couple of times,” Pensacola resident Patrick Cardwell said.

He’s lived just two blocks away from the hospital for more than 30 years.

He says it’s one of the reasons he bought his home to begin with.

This very location is where he was treated for a severe case of pneumonia that sent him into sepsis.

“I was really sad to see it go because it was so handy to be this close to medical care and my doctors and everything,” Cardwell said.

The hospital shut its doors on this location in 2023.

Since then Cardwell has had to find medical care farther from home.

Soon the property will be transformed.

“It’s not just a mayor project or an administration project; it’s a city project, it’s a county project, and it’s a regional asset for us moving forward,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said.

For some the move raises a red flag.

“I worry about the demolition process,” Pensacola resident Brenda Parsons said. “If they’re going to keep the air clean, or we’re going to just get a whole bunch of fallout like 9/11.”

Mayor D. C. Reeves says he and the city council want community input on the future of the property.

“Yes, we know housing is an issue,” Reeves said. “Yes, we know education is an issue. Yes, we know food access and healthcare are issues; we know that.”

Reeves says the levels of those needs are unclear.

Residents say they have a couple of ideas for redevelopment.

“A park, that might be nice with walking trails and all of that,” Parsons said.

“It would be nice to have a center city-type arrangement down here where you have the affordable housing and we have the grocery stores or those types of things here that are lacking in this neighborhood now,” Cardwell said.

The demolition is set to start this December and is expected to be complete in 2027.

We recently asked what you want to see happen with the property.

50% of you said you would like to see affordable housing.