Lutheran Services for the Aging is working on expansion plans that would give it two nursing homes in Forsyth County.
The organization already runs Lutheran Home-Winston-Salem, a nursing home with 117 residents on Old Walkertown Road. Lutheran Services is looking for land nearby to build a new home, said Ted Goins, the president and chief executive of the organization. Parts of the existing home are 50 years old, and it needs to be replaced, he said.
The organization bought The Elms, an assisted-living home in Clemmons, in December and has submitted plans to add a nursing home next to The Elms.
The move would give Lutheran Services a total of 217 beds in Forsyth County. The idea was to have two smaller homes rather than one large institution, Goins said.
Two locations would not only make for a more homelike setting, but would also give the organization a chance to have homes on opposite ends of the county.
"That way, we can serve more of the community," he said. Lutheran Services runs four other nursing homes in North Carolina.
Lutheran Services bought The Elms for $10.5 million. Elms officials had previously filed site plans dating back to 2003 for expansions on 10 acres of land adjacent to the home that Lutheran Services acquired with the purchase.
Lutheran's plan calls for a one-story home with 100 beds.
Rezoning is not necessary, but the site plan needs to be approved by both the Clemmons Planning Board and the Village Council, said Megan Ledbetter, Clemmons' planner.
The site plan had been scheduled to go before the planning board this month, but Lutheran Services asked to postpone it until next month, Ledbetter said.
Goins said he asked for the extension to make sure that the plan was accurate before going before the board. "We're not in any terrible hurry, and we want to get it right," he said.
Lutheran Services also has filed two certificates of need with state regulators, a requirement for the additional beds.
No opposition to the plans was voiced at a public hearing in December, Goins said, and he expects the certificates to be approved.
Goins said that the addition of the nursing home will give residents of the assisted-living center a place next door to go to when they need more care than the assisted-living center can give them. The Elms is on Harper Road, close to where Novant Health Inc. plans to build a new hospital.
Goins said he expects to have a close relationship with the hospital.
"We were coming anyway," Goins said. "That was just icing on the cake to have them that close." He said he hopes to start construction on the Eastern Winston-Salem home in 2011 and the Clemmons home in 2012.
■ Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.
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