Extendicare Health Services Inc., of Milwaukee, a large operator of long-term care facilities in the U.S., including three here, says it hopes to open a 120-bed, $14 million skilled-nursing center on the South Hill.


The Milwaukee-based company has submitted an application to the Washington state Department of Health for a certificate of need to build a nursing home on the east side of Freya Street at about 44th Avenue, just south of the Greystone housing development. In its application, Extendicare proposed developing a 56,000-square-foot facility there, says Mel Beal, Extendicares Dublin, Ohio-based vice president of operations. Beal says the estimated size and cost of the proposed facility are only preliminary. For a 120-bed facility, the company would hire about 200 employees, he says.


Extendicare expects to find out by the end of June whether its application for a certificate of need has been approved, Beal says. If its application is approved, it will issue a request for proposals shortly thereafter to find a contractor. The company likely would start the project sometime next year, although it hasnt set a timetable yet, he says. Bellevue, Wash.-based HDI Architects PS, which submitted the preliminary drawing for the nursing home, will design the project if it moves forward.


In the Spokane area, Extendicare currently operates Franklin Hills Health & Rehabilitation Center, at 6021 N. Lidgerwood; The Gardens on University, at 414 S. University, in Spokane Valley; and Cherrywood Place Retirement & Assisted Living, at 100 E. Dalke.


The area of Spokane is a good market to go to, Beal says. We like the labor market, the health-care market, and the population thats there.


Overall, Extendicare operates 235 health-care facilities in the U.S. and Canada, including 16 facilities in Washington and two in Coeur dAlene, its Web site says. The company closed Southcrest Subacute & Specialty Care center here in 1999, blaming insufficient federal reimbursement programs for poor and elderly patients, Beal says. It also closed one of its other nursing homes here, Valleycrest Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, in 1996.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.