July 28, 2000
Shawhan hotel sells to Elmwood Centers Inc.
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
For Kathy Hunt, owning the Shawhan Hotel could be the answer to an obsession.
Elmwood Centers Inc., which owns a nursing home and assisted-living center in Green Springs, is buying the Shawhan from Sunrise Assisted Living Inc. Elmwood also is purchasing Sunrise of Fremont.
"We're bringing our locally owned company over to Tiffin," said Hunt, Elmwood's president and chief executive officer.
Hunt saw the value of having a restored Shawhan as part of a revitalization of downtown in the early 1990s. The family-owned company looked at purchasing the hotel and converting to assisted living housing in 1992, she said, but construction of new facilities in Green Springs took precedence. By the time they were able to seriously consider the idea, the Shawhan was bought by Karrington Health Inc.
"I was really bummed," Hunt said. "I had an obsession with the building. When someone else started renovations, I was like, 'Oh, that's my building,'" Hunt said.
Karrington was purchased by Sunrise Assisted Living, which opened the Shawhan in its present incarnation in May 1999. Elmwood began talking to Sunrise about purchasing the Shawhan in December.
"I was raised in Tiffin and hold Tiffin dear to my heart," she said.
While the $3.5 million project is being financed largely through Bank One, "the bank can't provide more than 80 percent of the funding," Hunt said.
The federal Small Business Administration and Tiffin's revolving loan fund helped the company find the rest of the money to purchase the Shawhan, she said.
"It was important to get that extra funding," Hunt said.
Karen Bowers, director of development for the Seneca Industrial and Economic Development Corp. said the Revolving Loan Fund Committee approved a $200,000 loan to Elmwood on Wednesday, to be paid back at 5 percent interest over 10 years.
Hunt expects to close the deal by the end of August.
Maria Browne, Sunrise at the Shawhan's executive director, was not surprised by the McClean, Va.-based company's desire to sell the former hotel.
While Sunrise has more than 150 assisted living centers nationwide, as well as facilities in Canada and the United Kingdom, she said, they prefer to operate in large metropolitan areas.
Hunt and Browne said they do not expect major changes to take place once the former hotel becomes Elmwood at the Shawhan.
"Sunrise's staff has been wonderful," Hunt said. "They're great folks."
Elmwood has 20 assisted-living units in Green Springs, while the Shawhan has 54. Hunt said they have a waiting list for units in Green Springs and expects some people, especially those from Tiffin, will be willing to move into the Shawhan.