Future of Lasata senior campus a debate no more

It’s been more than a decade since Ozaukee County officials first talked about it, but ground was finally broken last week on a community-based residential facility at the Lasata Senior Living Campus in Cedarburg that, it is hoped, will close the so-called continuum-of-care loop at the facility and make it more self-sustaining and keep it off the property tax rolls.

The CBRF will be the fourth building on the campus, joining  the Lasata Care Center, a 136-bed rehabilitation and skilled-care nursing facility; Lasata Crossings, a 60-unit assisted living facility; and Lasata Heights, a 60-unit apartment building for independent seniors older than 62.

The 21-bed CBRF would serve frail elderly and those in need of special care, such as dementia patients, officials say. 

The campus currently loses some residents because not all those services are available. Adding the beds would keep those residents and open space in the other buildings, they say. 

“Ozaukee County’s investment in this facility reflects our commitment to help residents age with dignity — close to family, friends and the community they love,” said Jason Dzwinel, Ozaukee County Administrator. “By adding a modern CBRF next to Lasata Crossings, we’re strengthening a full spectrum of high-quality senior care options on one campus.”

Whether to expand the campus and add a CBRF or reduce the campus’ size, even closing it, was a debate topic among supervisors in the spring elections of 2014.

Lasata had become an albatross to the county in the eyes of some at the time.

Supervisors were faced with borrowing $7.2 million for campus renovations and potentially spending $3 million more to build a CBRF.

That was after 2013, when the Care Center alone lost $500,000.

Plus, some supervisors questioned whether the county should be in the nursing home business at all competing with private care facilities, suggesting Ozaukee follow the lead of many other Wisconsin counties to get out of the business altogether.

“Personally, when it comes to Lasata, I have a problem with the county competing against private business,” one candidate told Ozaukee Press in March 2014.

But supervisors eventually decided to support expanding Lasata, renewing the county’s commitment to maintaining the senior living campus as a source of affordable housing and care for the elderly.

A CBRF, supporters said, would be another step toward ensuring Lasata remains financially viable. 

Like the campus’ independent living and assisted living facilities, where more residents pay privately or through Medicare, the CBRF is intended to generate revenue to offset the losses of the nursing home, where more patients rely on Medicaid, and keep the campus off the tax levy.

Medicaid, a federal health plan for the poor administered by the state, typically does not pay enough to cover the cost of care, although federal reimbursements have improved in recent years.

That view was bolstered in 2019 when a study found that the county’s growing population of senior citizens with relatively high incomes could support the new facility.

The study found that the growth in seniors is higher in the area studied than in the Milwaukee metro area as a whole, plus seniors in Ozaukee County have higher incomes and higher home values than in the overall metro area. Home equity is often tapped to help pay for senior housing.

In addition, some of the existing private facilities are dated and in need of renovation and “would not likely compare favorably to a new building at the existing Lasata campus,” the study said.

The study was updated recently following the pandemic and reached similar conclusions.

The cost of the project, which includes the remodeling of a kitchen at the Lasata Crossings assisted living facility, stands at about $7.4 million. The kitchen will serve the 18,000-square-foot, 21-bed CBRF and Lasata Crossings.

That cost is higher than was expected in September 2023 when the County Board authorized using $4.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act grant money for the project. 

When it became apparent earlier this year that costs would likely rise above that mark, a contingency fund was created.

The original $4.5 million did not include “soft” costs such as architectural services, permitting and furnishings, nor the cost of the kitchen, Dzwinel said. 

Financing beyond the $4.5 million is coming from the county’s capital fund that has $1.3 million of interest earned on those and other ARPA dollars.

The remaining $1.6 million will be funded from Lasata Campus operations. That includes a $500,000 contingency fund that would only be spent if there are unforeseen costs, Dzwinel said. 

Construction on the CBRF is expected to begin this year and be complete by the end of 2026.