Elder-care center being built in PF
POST FALLS – Heavy equipment is scouring land on the east end of Post Falls in preparation for construction of a $50 million elder-care campus that will feature a nursing home as well as assisted- and independent-living centers.
The facility is going up immediately west of Wal-Mart and north of Interstate 90.
Cleveland, Tenn.-based Life Care Centers of America is building the campus in phases.
The first stage will encompass a 63,000-square-foot, 120-bed skilled nursing home on east Mullan Avenue. Construction of that building is expected to be completed about this time next year, said builder Mark Black of Advantage Construction.
Later this fall, Black said, crews are expected to start construction of a second building. Its footprint will total 290,000 square feet and will include 104 assisted-living apartments and 153 independent-living units.
It’ll take about 18 months to finish that second phase, he said.
Total construction costs will reach at least $50 million, Black said.
The facility will be the second in Kootenai County for Life Care Centers of America.
Forbes magazine reported last year that the company was the 181st-largest U.S. corporation with $1.96 billion in revenue. Life Care employs about 30,000 people at its 260 centers in 28 states.
Phase 3 is still on the drawing board. It proposes the addition of medical offices, according to plans filed with the Post Falls Planning and Zoning Department.
“The layout of the site includes a main entrance from Mullan extending south, with buildings located to the east, west and south,” said Garrett Smith, Post Falls’ principal planner.
Life Care officials estimate the new complex will have an annual economic impact of $10 million on the area, including a yearly payroll of $4 million, plus local purchases of goods and services, according to previously published reports.
U.S. census figures show that about 13 percent of Kootenai County’s population is over age 65, a rate slightly higher than among the U.S. population as a whole.
About 1,600 people work in nursing homes, home health care and other residential care for the elderly in Kootenai County, earning annual wages of $31 million, statistics show.
Kathryn Tacke, regional labor economist for Idaho’s Commerce and Labor Department, said care of the elderly ranks among Kootenai County’s fastest-growing industries.