DeKalb County nursing center’s $8.3M sale not likely to be final until early 2023, says county administrator

SYCAMORE – An $8.3 million sale of the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center to Evanston-based health care facility management company Illuminate HC previously expected to close this month might not be final until early 2023, county administrator Brian Gregory said this week.

The center – which has been the subject of more than a year of fiscal debate – faces more than $7 million in debt because of what county officials have alleged was mismanagement, delinquent billing and ailing resident numbers. County officials have maintained a sale was necessary to stem the cash flow issues at the home.

Gregory said the sale of the nursing center may not be completed by the end of the year.

“Initially we were, our belief was that would happen or transpire by the end of the calendar year,” Gregory said. “There’s a very remote chance that the entire sale is finalized prior to Dec. 31. It’s more than likely it will be sometime in January at the earliest.”

The newly sworn slate of DeKalb County Board members were given a crash course by Gregory this week on hot topics in county government, including the impending sale of the county nursing home, solar energy and a muddled land transfer plan regarding a sale of Suburban Estates apartments. The topic updates were given during this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, meant to orient new board members ahead of their first full County Board meeting.

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How long until the nursing home sale is finalized is more or less dictated by the state, Gregory said.

“Things are progressing,” Gregory said. “They have been progressing through due diligence, and so we would anticipate an early 2023 sale coming through.”

According to county documents, DeKalb County paid $150,000 to keep the rehab and nursing center solvent. Gregory estimates $200,000 will be necessary in December and if the sale doesn’t finalize before Dec. 31 another $200,000 could be required from the county in January.

Gregory said the county still has $220,000 in the asset replacement and the opportunity and special project funds but once those coffers are exhausted the county will need to dip into the general fund to keep the nursing center from becoming insolvent.

“We’ve got another $220,000 left in those funds that we can use,” he said. “So once we spend that, then how, if we do need $400,000, where does that other $180,000 come from? That’s where I’m saying it’ll come from the general fund.”