As plans for the future of the old Richmond Community Hospital building continue to unfold, a lawsuit regarding its condition and preservation is being dropped.

Former Richmond City Council member Sa’ad El-Amin filed the suit last year over the deteriorating condition of the historic building, which opened in the 1930s to serve African American patients who were denied care elsewhere due to segregation.

The suit intended to prevent the building’s demolition as part of a housing project by Virginia Union University, who was given the building in the 1980s to ensure its preservation.

The school announced plans to preserve the site just hours after the suit was filed late last year, following months of community pushback and outcry over its original plans for the building.

El-Amin explained the decision to drop the suit came after the previous judge attached to the case, Devika Davis, recused herself last week, leading to Judge Bradley Cavedo’s selection as her replacement.

El-Amin has criticized Cavedo’s work in the past, including filing a complaint in 2020 with the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission to remove Cavedo from his position over judicial injunctions barring the removal of Confederate statues by the Richmond and Virginia governments. Cavedo’s orders would later be thrown out by the Virginia Supreme Court.

“I just don’t have the energy,” El-Amin said when asked about dropping the lawsuit. “We can go away with a small victory. We got what we really wanted.”

El-Amin added that public interest in the building’s condition had waned since VUU’s announcement, potentially leaving him without the community support he believes is essential for a case like this.

Viola Baskerville, who co-founded the Save Community Hospital group in response to VUU’s initial intent, disagreed with El-Amin’s perspective on public interest.

“The community’s fight was to bring attention to the critical significance of the building as a cultural asset worthy of saving and to keep it from being demolished,” Baskerville stated in an email. “We accomplished that. The current state of the building, however, is still an issue.”

El-Amin remained critical of VUU’s management of the building, the City of Richmond’s failure to hold them accountable and the need for a non-profit entity to take control.

“They’ve done nothing with it since it was gifted to them ... and they don’t intend to do anything,” El-Amin said. “They haven’t even tried to cover up the windows that are broken.”

El-Amin said seeking an injunction could still be an option if VUU fails to follow through on preserving the site. He also plans to contact the Internal Revenue Service about the building’s condition but acknowledged that recent staffing cuts at the agency could complicate those efforts.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for VUU did not address the lawsuit directly, but stated the school is “eager to help address Richmond’s housing crisis by building new places for people to live.”

“This includes bringing the Richmond Community Hospital building back to life as a center for health and wellness,” the spokesperson said. “The entire project is moving through the review and permitting process now, and we hope to break ground later this year.”