The former St Mary's Hospital site in Colchester is expected to be sold within days.
A supermarket, homes and shops will be built by the developer buying the prime eight-acre site.
Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust, which owns the land and runs hospitals in Colchester, Clacton, Harwich and Halstead, will benefit from £2.75 million expected to be raised from the sale.
A Trust spokesman said: "We are in on-going discussions with a particular developer and we are hopeful these discussions will reach a conclusion in mid-April."
Colchester Council agreed a scaled-down outline application for shops and homes nearly two years ago.
The hospital closed in June 1993. It costs the Trust £40,000 a year for private security cover there.
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