NEW CASTLE County land will be seniors' site

The county wants to use money from the sale to help renovate the nursing home.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A Cleveland company is buying vacant county-owned land to develop a campus-style senior citizens complex.
Lawrence County commissioners agreed Tuesday to sell 21.84 acres off state Route 65 to National Commonlife Properties for $525,000.
Initial plans call for a 120- to 125- room independent-living complex, a 30-bed assisted living facility and another 30-bed facility dedicated to dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients, officials said.
Commissioners said that money from the sale will be used for improvements to Hillview Manor, the county-owned nursing home adjacent to the property being sold.
The nursing home and the wooded lot being sold are part of a 40-acre plot that was once a farm that provided work and homes for indigent residents.
Nursing home renovation: Commissioner Roger DeCarbo said the National Commonlife Properties sale and two other ventures could pay for an entire renovation of the county nursing home.
DeCarbo said commissioners want to renovate the newest wing of the building and construct a wing and a small space for administration. The remaining part of the building -- a three-story section -- might be renovated into office space that could be rented to area agencies that receive county funding, he said.
"We could possibly generate some money through those rentals," he said.
But those plans hinge on two other deals involving the county-owned nursing home, DeCarbo said.
Commissioners are working on appeals to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements paid to Hillview since the late 1980s. DeCarbo said the county could end up getting $500,000 to $700,000.
License sale: The county is also considering selling 13 of its nursing-home-bed licenses to other facilities, he said. An additional $325,000 could be made on that deal, DeCarbo said. That would leave the county with 110 beds in the nursing home.
According to DeCarbo, the state restricts the number of licensed nursing home beds in each community, much like it restricts the number of liquor licenses in each community. If a facility wants to increase its bed capacity, it must "buy" beds from another facility, he said.
Those plans, however, all hinge on the National Commonlife Properties deal.
The Cleveland company has 90 days in which it can opt out of the deal, said Charleen Micco, county administrator. She said the company plans to test soil on the property and apply for local construction permits during those 90 days.