Tennessee drug-treatment system applied to take over nursing home

Apr. 21—URBANA — A Franklin, Tenn.-based substance-abuse treatment system has been poised to take over the University Rehabilitation Center of CU property if the Champaign County Board were to permit the facility to be operated as something other than a nursing home.

The city of Urbana received a special-use permit application in October 2022 from Landmark Recovery to operate a treatment center at the University Rehab property, formerly the Champaign County Nursing Home, 500 S. Art Bartell Road, U, according to Marcus Ricci, a city planner.

Ricci said the city has considered the application to be withdrawn since there's been no further contact from the applicant.

The city also was waiting to see if the applicant would clear hurdles currently blocking the sale of the nursing home to a non-nursing home operator, he said.

Under a restrictive covenant in the 2019 sale of the county nursing home, the current owner is required to maintain the property as a nursing home until 2028.

In information nursing home owner William "Avi" Rothner sent the county board, Rothner said the prospective treatment center operator is proposing a $6 million construction and renovation project for the nursing home building.

"Landmark is the operator entity, and they and the real estate company are still involved," he told The News-Gazette on Thursday.

Rothner also told the county board the treatment center would result in 160 new permanent jobs, with an average estimated salary of $68,000 a year, he said.

Attempts by The News-Gazette to reach Landmark Recovery for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.