After near 20 years saving up and months of preparation and revision, the Plainview Manor and Whispering Pines Assisted Living has confirmed a blueprint and progress on an expansion and new construction at the facility, hopefully in the near future.
Administrator Juleen Johnson said that facility needs have driven a conversation in the last year or so as to a renewed blueprint for the entire facility, leading to the proposed new construction project on the north end of the building.
“The Board wanted to move laundry upstairs,” said Johnson, and as that discussion began, space then became an issue, and as the conversation progressed, it seemed a right time to upgrade the floorplan with the addition.
Laundry at the facility has been in the basement for years, creating issues moving up and down with the considerable task. To move it upstairs, however, the Board quickly found that they were out of square footage with the extra physical therapy needed, and clients requesting private rooms.
The Whispering Pines addition, the most recent building project, is coming up on 25 years of age, and Administrator Johnson said she was looking at ways to increase or provide new revenue streams, to facilitate the new construction project.
The price tag currently sits at an estimated $4 million for eight new rooms with expanded services for assisted living residents, a new dining hall for assisted living, a community room conversion, entirely new same-floor laundry, new physical therapy space and a real nurses station for the assisted living.
The 8 new rooms will be larger for the assisted living side with sinks and separated space from living room and bedroom area, and moving floorplans will allow for 16 much larger private nursing home room as residents have been requesting.
“We’re really just adding space and amenities, by moving the floorplan around, we’re not adding any new licensing beds,” said Johnson. The nursing home will get larger and more private rooms, and assisted living will get some renovation and new dining room and other additions.
Though that price might seem high in current climate – Johnson said she has been planning for something like this for a good portion of her 20-plus years of service at the facility.
The Manor and Whispering Pines has a good amount in its savings, and the Board has committed over half of the project cost already to the total bill. In addition, Johnson said that the recently released City of Plainview community surveys will assist with portions of a grant application that the facility is hoping to get around $600,000 off of a match with.
That addition would leave around $1.25 million left to either borrow, bond or seek donations for, about 25 percent of the total cost.
The new construction will make more rooms available to Assisted Living folks, which will help raise more revenue to be able to pay back the total, but the Board is considering all forms of funding.
For the time being, the project has been paused, until the surveys are complete and the grant paperwork can be submitted for hopeful approval in November of 2026.
In the meantime, however, the administration and Board has encouraged community participation for the surveys, due mid-March, and has planned some town hall meetings in April to introduce the project in more detail to the community and seek input.