A roughly $8 million assisted-living project in El Dorado needs to get off the ground or will lose its approval from state regulators, the Arkansas Health Services Permit Commission determined Thursday.
A lagging project "holds up the delivery of health care services to the residents of Arkansas," commissioner and Reliance Health Care general counsel Eric Bell said, adding that it is the board's responsibility to get beds into use.
At their regular meeting this week, commissioners denied a request made by facility owner Dr. Nile Smith for more time to sign a construction contract for the proposed 73-bed Union County site, which got its permit to go forward in early 2017.
Speaking on behalf of Smith, who could not attend because of a health issue, Ed Lowry of Harco Constructors said financing issues had challenged the project and a new plan to arrange loan collateral had recently been developed.
But commissioners noted that this was the fifth such six-month extension request for Healing Waters Luxury Assisted Living, which they said is now sitting on a large number assisted-living beds in its county.
In a unanimous vote, commissioners agreed to deny the extension request. The managers of the El Dorado project now have until Jan. 21 to sign a construction contract or lose their permit of approval.
That permit is issued by the Health Services Permit Agency, which the commission oversees. It's required of developers or providers who want to start up new nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and home health agencies in the state.
Dozens of those projects are being developed in Arkansas at this time, including one other assisted-living facility in Union County, according to the agency's bed need book published in October.
In a phone interview, Smith said he would try to keep moving forward with his project, for which he feels there is a need in the area.
"I've been working on this a long time," he said. "It's unfortunate -- you can't make people invest in projects. You just hope that the project you have is inviting enough for people to want to invest."
Metro on 12/13/2019