Atlantic County wants to sell its nursing home, one of the last publicly-owned facilities of its kind in New Jersey, as mounting operation costs have increasingly become unmanageable, local officials said.
Meadowview Nursing Home, a 180-bed facility off Dolphin Avenue in Northfield, has become a financial strain due to operating costs and staffing shortages that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said.
County commissioners unanimously approved four resolutions last month to begin the sale process. The facility will be auctioned at an asking price of at least $23.5 million, according to the resolution. The entity that buys the nursing home must provide $461,000 up front, the resolution says.
The county’s purchasing director will coordinate a public auction at a later date, according to the resolution. Each bid will be reviewed by the county’s legal team and presented to the commissioners’ board for consideration.
Plans to sell the nursing home moved forward last year when Levinson said the county was prepared to hear offers for the facility. In an interview with NJ Advance Media on Wednesday, Levinson said companies continuously show interest in the multi-floor site.
Levinson did not name the interested parties, but he said the county would sell the property to the “highest responsible bidder.”
Meadowview is only the third remaining county-run nursing home in the state. It would become the second senior housing facility in the area to be privatized in the last two years. Healthcare company Allaire has been running Crest Haven Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Middle Township since its operations were transferred by Cape May County.
“This is something we have to do for the taxpayers,” Levinson said of Atlantic County’s nursing home.
One of the resolutions approved by the county commissioners approved a contract with David Kostinas and Associates, a healthcare consulting company, that will help auction the property. The company did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Another resolution approved by the county commissioners begins a process to subdivide county-owned property near the facility for senior housing. It references interest from the Catholic Diocese of Camden and a long-term lease to maintain land there for future development.
Levinson said the diocese, which has a housing service that develops affordable housing for seniors, has suggested about 70 units could be built in a field between Meadowview and other county facilities on Dolphin Avenue. The diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Atlantic County is asking the buyer of the nursing home to guarantee employment of the facility’s staff for at least 24 months, according to the resolution. Levinson also said officials want about 30 beds to remain open for military veterans.
Interested buyers have been receptive to the county’s requests, Levinson said.
The county has been plagued by lagging reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare, which haven’t kept up with rising costs tied to supplies and staffing, local officials said.
Atlantic County officials were hopeful that the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs would assume control of the facility. But county officials decided to try to sell after interest from state officials fizzled.
The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, with the help of the New Jersey National Guard, helped care for residents at the nursing home during the height of the pandemic, when about 600 troops were deployed to the site as part of the state’s response to the health crisis.
During the county commissioners’ last meeting of 2025, a discussion about the facility lasted several minutes before a vote. Amy Gatto, who was at the end of her final term as an Atlantic County commissioner last month, said any transfer of ownership of the nursing home would be a cumbersome process. She said measures taken to improve the situation failed.
“We’ve been taking steps for years before we’ve gotten to a decision like this, but this is still going to take at least a year,” Gatto said. “It’s going to take time. It’s not something happening overnight, and I think it’s still something that we will continue to talk about as things unfold along the way.”
Meadowview residents will continue to be accommodated even if the facility changes ownership, Levinson said.
The facility opened in the 1970s, according to the county. It is staffed by doctors, nurses, dietitians, therapists and social workers. In addition to providing housing for seniors, the facility offers short-term care for recovering hospital patients, as well as hospice services for terminally ill patients, according to the county.
“We’ve been losing millions (of dollars) a year every year, and it’s just no longer sustainable,” Levinson said. “It’s a wonderful amenity to our county, but we no longer can absorb it.”