When a nursing home closes, what becomes of the residents is the first focus of business, and that’s an ongoing concern of state lawmakers. But for those properties that do close, what subsequently happens to them is determined by location and the age of the structure.
An incidental review of nursing home sale data provided by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, cross-referenced with news reports, reveals various reuses of properties that went out of use as long-term care facilities.
The former Northbridge Nursing & Rehabilitation Center at 2356 Providence Road in Northbridge is now a rental community close to major highways and commuter rail.
The former Crestview Healthcare Facility at 86 Greenleaf St. in Quincy and the former Hancock Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Braintree at 145 Hancock St. were converted into condominiums.
The former Pioneer Valley Manor Rest Home in Greenfield at 148 Montague City Road is now a multifamily property, as is the former Tuell Nursing Home at 92 Franklin St., Melrose, which closed in 2013.
The former Marathon Health Care Center of Springfield at 370 Pine St., Springfield, which closed in 2008, is now Veritas Prep Charter School.
Within the last year, Genesis HealthCare LLC shuttered five of its long-term care facilities in Massachusetts, stating that updating the facilities to its corporate standards would be cost-prohibitive. The financial pressures faced by long-term care facilities due to Medicaid payments that do not cover the full cost of patient care are well known. The buildings that Genesis shut down were of varying vintage: the former Rosewood Center Fall River facility dates from 1882; the former Glenwood Center in Lowell was built in 1960; the former Hammond Center in Worcester was built in 1965; the Coolidge House Nursing Care Center was built in 1984; and The Falmouth Center in Falmouth was built in 1988.
We’ve Been Here Before
Matt Henzy, senior project manager at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp., which is rehabilitating a former nursing home into a multi-purpose respite care development, provided Banker & Tradesman with a bit of perspective. In the late 1970s, stricter federal and state building requirements caused a wave of nursing home closures due to the economic unfeasibility of upgrading many structures.
“Some of the older ones were really inadequate,” he said.
The funding gap caused by Medicaid rates that haven’t been readjusted since 2005 is worsening the long-term care situation today. The current per-patient per-day loss due to Medicaid shortfall is $37. Smaller, inner-city facilities serving minority populations are most vulnerable. Both smaller facilities and bigger chains have closed or trimmed, forcing families to scramble to relocate a loved one on short notice. Families face serious headwinds in relocating Medicaid patients in an environment in which more facilities favor private-pay patients, anti-discrimination laws notwithstanding.
Long-term care availability is an issue that concerns State Sen. Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester). State laws have been passed regarding public hearings in connection with nursing home closures, similar to those regarding hospital closures, but the underlying regulations haven’t been established, said Chandler. Add to that, pressure to establish livable wages for nursing home workers who deal with the oldest, frailest patients, and the gap between revenue and expense goals – and community needs – becomes stark.
Still In The Social Services Sector
However, some reuses don’t stray far from the health care/social services continuum. Caritas Communities Inc. rehabilitated the former MacKenzie Nursing Home at 24-26 Vine St. in Melrose into 14 units of single-room low-income housing, with private baths and a common kitchen. The renovation cost a reported $1.1 million.
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp., in partnership with Boston Health Care for the Homeless, is spearheading the reuse of the former Barbara McInniss House at 461 Walnut Ave. The circa-1960 building, vacated when the McInniss facility moved to larger quarters, had been under agreement for years before its October 2014 acquisition. It will become a multi-purpose respite care development, with a ground-floor medical facility with 20 beds, and 30 studio apartments in its upper two floors, the latter to be managed by the Pine Street Inn.
The project initially drew opposition from 11 neighbors who filed suit in Superior Court in 2010, delaying construction for two and a half years. The court ruled in favor of the developers in early 2012.
Jamaica Plain NDC Executive Director Richard Thal and Henzy said the project is now 40 percent complete; occupancy is expected by the end of this year. In addition to the $1.6 million acquisition cost, was approximately $80,000 in legal fees, and the unquantifiable cost of construction delay as labor costs rose in an improving economy. But Thal said an aggressive schedule of community outreach brought the neighbors around.
“I think we took the high road,” he said, by inviting neighbors to participate in the process.
New long-term care facilities are still being built in the state, but their profile is changing due to an adverse long-term care economic climate. Meanwhile, facilities that are no longer feasible as traditional long-term care units are being freed up for other uses.
