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Nursed Back To Health

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By GEORGE WILKENS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

THONOTOSASSA - The '60s-style nursing home was a shambles when Malcolm "Mac" Harriman came courting.

"It was just a disaster," said Harriman, a psychologist with an extensive health care and business background who, at the urging of a former colleague, explored the property in April 2004.

Tattered mattresses, box springs, dilapidated wheelchairs, walkers and canes littered the 7-acre property and 39,000-square-foot concrete block building, vacant for two years. "Boxes of medical records were off in one room," abandoned by former operators of the 180-bed facility on McIntosh Road.
Harriman initially scoffed at the suggestion he buy the rundown property, in the hands of a real estate investment trust following failure of the facility's parent company.

Originally listed for $2.5 million, the rural property about three miles north of Interstate 4 was drawing scant attention - too specialized, too distressed to be attractive to an investor seeking to flip it.

"It was down to a million dollars when I looked at it," said Harriman, a Valrico resident who regularly revisited the property. "Each time, it made a little more sense how it could be reworked," but only as a health care facility and by someone experienced in that field, he said.

After eight months of negotiations, Harriman, aided by investors and a Small Business Administration loan, bought the property for $400,000. Then the real work began.

"My biggest job" immediately after taking possession "was to secure the place and keep it from being set on fire," Harriman said. The abandoned building with mattresses was attractive to some homeless people, who gained access by removed air-conditioning grates. Wasps also had moved in.

"Next, we gutted it right down to block," Harriman said of the structure built in 1963 and expanded in 1981. "All that was left was the roof, rafters, walls and floors."

Floors were trenched to accommodate new plumbing. A modern fire-protection sprinkler system was installed. The shell was renovated and a 5,000-square-foot addition was constructed. Modern on-site water and sewer systems were built.

Renovation and construction scheduled to take 18 months stretched into two years, costing more than $6 million.

Then, on April 4, the project christened Stone Ledge Manor - a name inspired by the nearby upscale community of Stonelake Ranch on Lake Thonotosassa - was licensed as a 52-bed assisted-living facility. Two business days later, the new facility accepted a deposit from the first resident.

The facility offers individual apartments (studios, one- and two-bedroom) with large bathrooms, walk-in showers and kitchens with full-size refrigerators. Each has individually controlled air conditioning and emergency call system and is wired for telephone, cable television and high-speed Internet. Closed-circuit cameras, 32 in all, scan the halls and entries.

Rent, which includes a variety of services, is $3,000 to $5,000 monthly, with the main variable being the room size.

The cost includes three meals and two snacks prepared daily by the dining services staff, directed by Ben Smerdell of Valrico, and served restaurant-style in the large dining room. Brunch is offered Thursdays and Sundays.

On-site amenities include a laundry, salon, spa, library, concierge services, and assistance with transportation and daily living tasks. Housekeeping and linen service are provided.

The facility has several living room areas, two screened lanais, fireplace and cafe with around-the-clock beverages.

"We want them to feel like they're coming home," not to a medical facility, said Joy Cooper, lifestyle director of the facility, where residents are referred to as members.

The large lifestyle center with full kitchen will be the site of cooking demonstrations, exercise classes, craft instruction, a book club, games and other activities, Cooper said. Cooper also plans 26-minute mental marathons featuring puzzles and riddles to keep members sharp.

"We want to make it as cognitively stimulating as possible," Harriman said of members' lives at Stone Ledge Manor. "Remembering is good. It's good for the heart and good for the head, too," said Harriman, who received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Maryland.

A Lakeland resident with a degree in history education and a love of scrapbooking, Cooper said she is eager to launch sessions encouraging members to record their life histories.

"The more you make those cognitive connections the longer you keep those cognitive connections," she said. "We want to keep everyone perking right along."

Mable McMillan, an 85-year-old homemaker whose husband, Neal, 87, is in a nursing home, moved to Stone Ledge Manor on April 17.

With assistance from her oldest son, Ralph, who lives in nearby Seffner, she discovered the facility before it opened. "He kept his eye out, watched them build it. It looked like it was going to be a pretty place," she said.

Once it opened, Ralph McMillan and his mother stopped for a tour.

"It really suited me. I really liked it. It's a beautiful new place, all right," said McMillan, an Athens, Ala., native who moved to Tampa at age 12. "I was first on the list. They signed me up, and I've enjoyed it ever since."

STONE LEDGE MANOR

WHERE: 12006 McIntosh Road, Thonotosassa, about three miles north of Interstate 4

TELEPHONE: (813) 986-7900

WEB SITE: www.stoneledge manor.com

E-MAIL: SLM@stoneledge manor.com

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or gwilkens@tampatrib.com.

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