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Port authority approves financing for Poland Township assisted living facility
By Ed Runyan
AUSTINTOWN
The Western Reserve Port Authority agreed Wednesday to provide capital-lease financing of up to $13 million for an 89-unit Briarfield Health Care Centers assisted-living facility in Poland Township.
The Inn at Poland Way will be constructed on the south side of U.S. Route 224 near Clingan Road on a new road, Poland Way.
It is being developed by Briarfield Health Care Centers, which operates several other nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in the area.
Atty. David Rogers of the Columbus law firm Frost, Brown Todd said the port authority’s financing saves Briarfield the cost of sales taxes on building materials because the port authority becomes the owner and doesn’t have to pay sales taxes as a governmental body. The port authority will lease the facility back to Briarfield.
It’s a similar type of financing that the port authority used to provide $60 million in loans to Penn National Gaming to help it construct fixed assets at Hollywood at Mahoning Valley Race Course in 2013.
Fixed assets in the case of the assisted-living facility include construction of the facility. The Mahoning County sales-tax rate is 7.25 percent, part of which is paid to Mahoning County government entities and part to the state.
The arrangement leaves the port authority with “no liability of any sort,” Rogers told the port authority at its monthly meeting at the Austintown Township Hall.
The Austintown racino was the last project to take advantage of the port authority’s ability to offer this kind of financing, said John Moliterno, port authority executive director. The closing on the financing is likely to occur around Sept. 15, Rogers said.
“We are glad for the opportunity to help create new jobs and have additional options for families to stay in the community, especially in their retirement years,” Moliterno said.
The Inn at Poland Way is expected to employ the equivalent of 38 full-time employees and open in 2016, company officials said in May.
Of the 89 units, 64 will be assisted living and 25 will be in a dementia-care wing, the company said.