Westlake serves as $53 million conduit insurer to senior living facility

On Nov. 19, 2020, the Westlake City Council authorized the City to serve as a conduit issuer in $53 million healthcare revenue bonds in support of LEC-Concord Reserve Holding Co. LLC.

“As a conduit issuer,” Prashant Shah, the Westlake City Finance Director explained, “the City has no financial liability in this transaction. The City is … merely lending its name to [LEC-Concord] to issue bonds primarily to access the City’s credit and thus obtain a low interest rate for the bonds."

LEC-Concord Reserve, located at 2116 and 2154 Dover Center Road, Westlake, is an Ohio nonprofit senior care facility. It was founded as the Lutheran Home for the Aged in 1936. Later it was renamed as Lutheran Home at Concord Reserve after the vineyard the land was built on.

On Sept. 1, 2020, it became affiliated with Life Enrichment Communities (LEC), an Ohio nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, which oversees two senior care campuses in the greater Cincinnati area, Twin Towers and Twin Lakes. LEC is affiliated with the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. Twin Towers, which used to be Methodist Home for the Aged, also has a rich history dating back to 1899. The three campuses serve people of all faiths.

Jim Bowersox, LEC Vice President of Finance/CFO, said, “We needed the City of Westlake to agree to act as a conduit (i.e., Westlake has no financial responsibility for the debt) in order to refinance the debt in the tax-exempt municipal bond market and we are extremely grateful for their support of our efforts for this important step necessary to make Concord Reserve the premier senior living community in the Greater Cleveland area.”

The last time the City acted as a conduit issuer was in 2005, also for the then Lutheran Home at Concord Reserve in the amount of $24.7 million.

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Volume 12, Issue 23, Posted 10:05 AM, 12.01.2020