With capital campaign goal met, Glen Haven Village proponents seek to finalize lease agreement

More than $1 million has now been raised or pledged for the Glen Haven Village capital campaign.
    Proponents of the $3.2 million skilled nursing facility being proposed for a cluster of residential cottages on the campus of the Glenwood Resource Center (GRC) are optimistic construction will begin later this year once a long-term lease agreement is finalized with the state of Iowa.
    “We’ve met our capital campaign goal of reaching $1 million by the first of the year, now it’s just a matter of getting the agreement finalized,” former Glen Haven board member and capital campaign coordinator Phil Warren said. “We met with the fire marshal and that went very well. We also met with the licensing and appeals people and that went very well.”
    Glen Haven Village would replace the 53-year-old Glen Haven Home at 302 Sixth St. in Glenwood with a state-of-the art skilled-care facility being operated out of seven renovated cottages on the GRC campus. Skilled nursing care and rehabilitative care would be provided in a homelike setting with the facility having the capability to house 75-80 residents.
    Each cottage would house 10-12 residents, with one of the units designated exclusively for memory support and Alzheimer’s care and another cottage set up to accommodate residents in need of short-term rehabilitation. The cottages are designed to have single-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms.
 Plans call for dietary, laundry and maintenance services to be provided by GRC staff and Glen Haven Village residents having access to the GRC chapel and hydro-therapy pool.
    Glen Haven administrative offices would be housed in an eighth building at GRC.
    Glen Haven Home is a non-profit, community-based care facility. The Glen Haven Board of Directors plans to use funds from the USDA Rural Development loan program to cover the majority of construction costs. Tentative terms of the loan agreement are for 35 years at 2.75 percent, Warren said. The total loan package of $4.6 million includes the refinancing of Glen Haven’s remaining debt for the construction of the Linnwood Estates assisted living complex.
      “The federal funds have been committed,” Warren said. “The loan’s been approved, subject to a number of conditions.”
    Warren noted that although the capital campaign goal has been realized, thanks in great part to a $500,000 matching donation from the Rod Rhoden Foundation, donations and pledges toward the project are still being accepted. Several naming right opportunities are available.
    Warren said the project will move forward once a long-term lease agreement that meets the needs of the Glen Haven Board, Iowa Department of Human Services (IDHS) and the USDA can be reached. The IDHS oversees management of the GRC.
     IDHS officials are agreeable to a 50-year lease with Glen Haven, Warren said, but a clause in their proposal would allow the state to terminate the lease in 180 days if the decision is ever made to close the GRC or slash state funding of the facility by more than 25 percent. Warren said closure of the GRC is highly unlikely, but if the scenario were to play out, Glen Haven wants to have the option to buy the property it’s utilizing or receive compensation to meet financial obligations created by termination of the lease.
    Warren said risk for the USDA is minimal because terms of the loan agreement require Glen Haven to have a reserve account in place to cover one full year of loan repayment. He also noted that 75-80 percent of the resident care costs at Glen Haven are paid for with federal Medicaid dollars.
    In the past two weeks, state Rep. David Sieck and State Sen. Mark Costello have discussed the Glen Haven Village plan with IDHS Director Charles Palmer and IDHS Administrator of Mental Health and Disability Services Richard Shults.
Sieck said Monday the agreement with Glen Haven being proposed by the state is similar to an arrangement already in place for an entity leasing property from the state on the campus of the Cherokee Mental Health Institute.
    Sieck said both Palmer and Shults voiced their support of the Glen Haven Village plan during the meetings, but concerns were expressed about the unusual 35-year length of the loan agreement between the nursing home and USDA. Sieck said IDHS officials prefer to have the 180-day termination clause in the lease agreement as a measure of protection for taxpayers and future IDHS officials and legislators.
    IDHS officials have been unavailable for interviews to discuss Glen Haven Village, but IDHS Public Information Officer Amy McCoy said the project has the full support of both Palmer and Shults.
    McCoy relayed the following statement from Shults:
“We are absolutely supportive of the Glen Haven Village project and we look forward to continuing to work with them to get the details finalized to make this happen.”
Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Rep. David Young have also voiced support for the Glen Haven Village proposal during visits to the GRC campus.