LAWRENCE COUNTY Officials to discuss sale of Hill View

Sylvan Heights Realty formed specifically to buy Hill View.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County commissioners will enter into negotiations with Sylvan Heights Realty Partners LLC for the sale of the county nursing home and surrounding land.
Commissioner Ed Fosnaught voted against the measure Tuesday, saying he disagrees with some of the terms in the buyer's initial offer.
Commissioners Roger DeCarbo and Brian Burick agreed to talk exclusively with Sylvan over the next 30 days.
The New Castle-based company was set up exclusively for this deal, said George Howley of Union Township, the general managing partner of the group.
Howley said he has three other partners but declined to identify them.
Fosnaught doesn't think Sylvan's offer was high enough. He wanted some type of assurance, such as a performance bond, that the company would keep the nursing home employees for at least a year.
Concerns
Fosnaught said he is concerned the company will close the nursing home and the county will end up paying unemployment claims. The county would be responsible for any unemployment claims up to a year after any sale.
The commissioner also didn't agree with the buyer's request that the county be responsible for any environmental cleanup.
DeCarbo and Burick said all of those are negotiable over the next 30 days.
Burick said his goals in negotiations include having no disruption to Hill View Manor residents or employees, but he would also like to see the property put back on the real estate tax rolls. It is tax exempt because it is owned by the county.
Howley said his group intends to operate the nursing home with most of the current employees. He said he is familiar with the facility and their work because he had a relative who lived at Hill View Manor in the 1990s.
"The reputation of the facility is a result of the employees that are there. The success is based on the employees," he said.
The investors also plan to develop a wooded portion of the 40-acre property as a gated high-end condominium and townhouse community. The rest of the property would be marketed for commercial use, Howley said.
Howley noted they are not interested in retail businesses, but offices and other businesses that would bring in jobs and increase the value of the land.