Panel Oks Hawthorne Manor Plan In/Around: Country Homes

A Spokane County panel last week gave the Hawthorne Manor Retirement Residence the OK to double its living quarters.

Owners of the non-profit retirement home at 101 E. Hawthorne Road plan to add a three-story building with 93 units. Hawthorne Manor is home to about 100 seniors who live in retirement apartments or nursing units.

Money generated from the expansion would help pay for $6.9 million in improvements that are needed at the 30-year-old center. They include larger rooms, fire sprinklers and sewer work.

“We have a mechanical system that’s failing,” Hawthorne Manor administrator Marilyn Teets told hearing examiners. “Every time I turn around, something is breaking down or falling apart.”

Some of the center’s neighbors say they’re concerned the expansion will bring more traffic and cause property values to drop.

Teets said her residents are quiet and don’t drive much. Many spend winters in Arizona but return to Spokane each spring.

“Their lifestyles are entirely different than younger people,” she said. “They are usually in when it gets dark.”

Accompanying Teets at the hearing were eight Hawthorne Manor residents and several staff and board members.

The center is owned by Presbyterian Ministries of Seattle.