|
|
April 30, 1999/14 Iyar 5759, Vol. 51, No.31
Kivel purchases land, plans to build new facility
Assisted living to fill remaining care need for Jewish seniors
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
Kivel Campus of Care has purchased 17 acres of land at 59th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix on which to build an assisted living facility for seniors sometime next year.
The land - formerly owned by the state of Arizona - was purchased for $1.9 million at a public auction on March 29, according to Matthew Luger, executive director at Kivel.
Rachel and Arnold Smith of Phoenix donated $1 million to Kivel specifically to go toward buying the land. Arnold Smith, who is vice president of Kivel, acknowledged he had planned to help Kivel purchase property for such a purpose before the site became available. "We saw a need for this in the community," he said.
The transaction is currently in escrow and is due to close May 15. Before the project may proceed, however, Kivel plans to work with the community to "make sure they're accepting of what we want to do," Luger said. "Then we have to do adequate fund-raising, so I'm not envisioning anything happening with this for probably a good year."
Currently, the Kivel campus at 3020 N. 36th St. in Phoenix includes Kivel Care Center, the oldest continuously operating nursing home in Arizona, a non-profit care facility providing skilled and intermediate care; a 40-bed special unit for individuals with Alzheimer's and related disorders; and three independent-living apartment buildings that serve a predominately Jewish population of 262 seniors of all ages. The largest apartment building is Kivel Manor, which has 125 units and was built 35 years ago. The remaining two are the Blehart and Goldsmith buildings.
The new facility is expected to attract seniors in their 70s and 80s, Luger said.
All three existing Kivel apartment buildings offer activities, such as arts and crafts classes, local outings to plays and cultural institutions. But they do not offer any type of health care.
Due to a need for health care services that are less intensive than nursing-home care, Luger said the new building will be equipped with its own health care facility, and will offer a service package to residents.
"It's a service we don't have on our current premises and don't have room for on our current premises," he noted. The spaciousness of the new property, along with its location, interested Kivel management from the start, he said.
"The demographics are such that (this) is where a lot of seniors are moving," he said. "And equally as important, a lot of their children from the Jewish community are also moving to that area. ... Placement decisions have a lot to do with where the children live (because) of an issue like visitation."
Another plus, he added, is that the land is a half-mile away from the new Mayo Hospital, which will allow residents to "have the immediate accessibility of such superior medical care."
The new facility is expected to house 50 to 100 residents, most of whom will be newcomers to Kivel.
"Our suspicion is that as people's needs grow who (live in Kivel's) independent-living facilities, that those people might be candidates to transition over to (the assisted living facility)," he said. "But it will probably be more needs driven than preference driven (to get into a newer building)."
Many of the existing features at Kivel will be offered at the assisted-living facility, such as a kosher-meals dining room and senior programs.
"Not everyone needs a nursing center," Arnold Smith said. "Some people can get along, but they want to know that they can get help if they need it. There are also others who want to be in the Jewish environment and have a kosher kitchen."
Kate McAllister, Kivel's programs coordinator, thinks the new facility will enrich seniors' lives.
"Assisted living has really helped the whole concept and reality of the lives of seniors today," she said. "It is certainly evolving into a very needed level in the care of aging people."
|
