UNC Health Care will continue paying taxes on Eastowne Office Park property it bought this month from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, a spokeswoman said today.    

As N&O staff writer David Bracken reported last week UNC paid $14.2 million for the seven buildings that Blue Cross vacated last year as part of a cost-cutting effort. The deal includes 47 acres and 152,000 square feet of space across U.S. 15-501 from the insurer’s 40-acre campus headquarters.

The property has an appraised tax value of $16 million, according to Orange County land records. The sale price was negotiated after both sides did their own appraisals, Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman said..

Blue Cross paid $253,000 in property taxes on the buildings to the town, county and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district in 2010. When two vacant land parcels in the deal are included, taxes totaled $334,000, Borman said.