New nursing home gets go-ahead votes in Mundelein
Mundelein officials have approved plans for a new $30 million nursing home that will replace a formerly county-run facility in neighboring Libertyville.
The new facility, to be called Transitional Care of Lake County, will be built on Route 45 east of Route 83, on Mundelein's south side.
The 93,340-square-foot building will have room for 185 patients who need long-term nursing home care, rehabilitation services or Alzheimer's care.
Plans call for construction to start this summer and for the facility to open in 2018.
The village board approved the plan Monday night by agreeing to rezone the property and by granting a special-use permit for the facility. Several requested zoning variations were approved, too.
The proposals were approved 5-0 without debate. Trustee Bill Rekus was absent.
Transitional Care of Lake County will replace the Winchester House nursing home in Libertyville. That facility was run by Lake County for decades but has been privately operated since 2011.
Winchester House opened as Lake County's poor farm in 1847. The current building dates to 1942, although there was an addition in the 1970s.
The county got out of the nursing home business because of decreasing usage and dwindling revenue.
Lake County owns the Winchester House building, but Transitional Care Management leases the building and equipment from the county. Building a new nursing home was part of Transitional Care's deal with the county.
The shift to privatization - and the construction of a new facility - doesn't end the Winchester House tradition of servicing the county's poor, elderly population, said Lake County Board member Steve Carlson, who leads the panel's health and community services committee.
"Every effort has been made ... to ensure that the new facility will honor the rich tradition of the old," said Carlson, a Gurnee Republican.