Winston-Salem officials could trade city land with an organization that wants to build a nursing home in the eastern part of the city.
Lutheran Services for the Aging, which operates Lutheran Home Winston-Salem on Old Walkertown Road, wants to build a 117-bed nursing home on Waterworks Road near Winston Lake Park.
Ted Goins, the chairman and chief executive of Lutheran Services for the Aging, said that Lutheran Services was under contract to purchase land for the new nursing home on Waterworks Road, across from the Winston Family YMCA, from the Goler Community Development Corporation. Goins said that Lutheran Services ultimately found that the Goler land would not work for the nursing home the agency wanted to build.
"The property, because of that right of way, it's long and narrow on Waterworks Road and it's got a pretty wide city right-of-way that makes it much more narrow than you would like," Goins said. "You don't want to build a long, narrow nursing home. That makes it less usable for the residents who have to live there."
The city of Winston-Salem owns almost 48 acres across the street. The city's land includes Winston Lake Park. If the city council approves the deal, 12 acres of the city's land would go to Goler, which would sell the land to Lutheran Services. In return, the city would receive title to the Goler property that Lutheran Services originally intended to buy. The Goler land covers 14.6 acres.
Deputy City Manager Derwick Paige said that the Goler land is worth about $190,000. The city's land has not been appraised, he said, but is worth about $250,000. Paige said that the Goler land is worth less because it is not zoned appropriately for a nursing home. The city's land is. If Goler's land were to be rezoned, Paige said, it would be worth about $300,000.
Paige said that the 14.6 acres the city would get from Goler in the swap would likely be turned into more parkland and parking.
Goins said that the current nursing home on Old Walkertown Road caters to minorities or people with low incomes. He said that almost all of the residents at the Old Walkertown facility receive Medicare or Medicaid and that the new facilities would house residents with those same demographics.
The Old Walkertown Road nursing home has 217 beds, he said, but the agency uses only about 117 of those because part of the Old Walkertown facility is too old and in poor condition.
Goins said that the Old Walkertown Road nursing home also presents transportation problems. The current nursing home, he said, is two miles from the end of the city's bus line.
"People can't get to work, they can't come visit their family members because they don't even have public transportation out that far," he said. "By moving ..., we'll be on the bus line and we'll be right in the heart of the community we want to serve."
Earlier this year, the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation approved two new nursing homes -- one in east Winston and one in Clemmons.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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