The sale of Amsterdam’s former Slotervaart hospital to a property company has taken a step forward after a judge dismissed the city council’s two main objections.

The city’s court upheld a previous decision by a magistrate that there was no need to investigate whether the bankruptcy was legally justified.

An investigation would hold up the sale to Zadelhoff, which has pledged to write off the hospital’s debts in full, the judge ruled. A delay would be detrimental to the interests of creditors because they would incur continued running costs of around €300,000 per month.

The court also declined to grant the city council’s request to order the receivers to consider an alternative offer from the council before finalising the deal with Zadelhoff. The council lost out to the real estate firm in the bidding for the hospital site.

Slotervaart went bust at the same time as the IJsselmeer hospital group in Flevoland last October after their owners, the MC Groep, filed for bankruptcy.

The Amsterdam hospital had been struggling financially for years before it was taken over by MC Groep in 2013. More than 1,000 staff were employed at Slotervaart when it closed its doors.