The new owners of Prentis Manor plan to open a kosher
assisted-living facility in mid-summer.

JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER

I

t'll be called Ilan Village.
With each new admission, the
area's newest assisted-living facili-
ty — "Tree Village" in Hebrew —
will make a donation to the Jewish Na-
tional Fund for the planting of a tree
in Israel.
This is Prentis Manor's new incar-
nation, a kind of continuation of the old
— in keeping with the theme of roots
and branches. Assisted Living Associ-
ates, a company owned by Richard L.
Fink and John Hamburger, the exec-
utive vice president of Parliament
Building Co. in Southfield, will man-
age the facility, which is designed for
people who do not require 24-hour nurs- Prentis Manor is about to undergo a transformation.
ing care but are not fully independent.
Although the building has a full kosher
Parliament built Prentis Manor in the late
kitchen, Mr. Hamburger initially thought
1960s.
Mr. Hamburger, a board member of the it might be too expensive to operate. After
Benefactors of the Jewish Home for Aged talking to members of JHA and Jewish Fed-
(JHA) and Jewish Federation Apartments, eration Apartments, however, Assisted Liv-
said he hopes to open the new facility in ing Associates decided to keep it in
July after extensive renovations to the in- operation.
"One of the things that came through
terior of the 35,000-square-foot building,
which sits on six acres at the corner of clearly was that having a full kosher kitchen
Lahser Road and Civic Center Drive in was important to people. A fairly small per-
centage — less than 15 percent — require
Southfield.

PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT

Putting Down Roots

kosher food, from what we've been told, but
people identify that as a very important in-
dicia ofJewish identity in the facility," he
said.
As a "preferred provider" for the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, the fa-
cility has agreed to set aside 10 percent of
its 78 beds for lower-income residents. Fed-
eration, however, isn't offering subsidies.
The sale price
of the property is
confidential,
said Mark
Davidoff, Feder-
ation chief oper-
ating officer.
The building
was owned by
JHA, an agency
ofJewish Feder-
ation of Metro-
politan Detroit,
and run for 26
years as a nurs-
ing home.
Last Decem-
ber, JHA shut
Prentis, ending
an era in which Federation owned and op-
erated Jewish nursing homes. Some Pren-
tis residents moved into the Marvin and
Betty Danto Family Health Care Center,
an upscale nursing home on the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community Campus.
Others moved to Menorah House in South-
field and non-Jewish facilities throughout
the metro area.
Mr. Davidoff said he is "thrilled" at the
change of ownership.

D

"We view this as the continued develop-
ment of our strategy, which is to create this
network of preferred providers who will ser-
vice the Jewish community in high-quali-
ty facilities in the areas where our
community is best served. This couldn't
have been a better outcome," he said.
The Commission on Jewish Eldercare
Services (COJES), a new Federation agency
that will coordinate services for older adults
in the community, may provide religious
and cultural programming at Ilan, said CO-
JES Director Linda Blumberg. COJES just
hired a full-time rabbi to provide pastoral
care to Jewish residents in nursing homes
throughout the city.
Mr. Hamburger said rents at Ilan Vil-
lage will be comparable to those at Fleis-
chman Residence, an assisted living facility
on the West Bloomfield campus of the Jew-
ish Community Center. Rents there range
from $1,325 to $2,440 per month. But Ilan
will offer a higher level of care, including
handling people with dementia. Round-the-
clock monitoring, medication dispensing,
and bathing, grooming and dressing assis-
tance will also be available.
"What we provide is more of a medical
than a social model. We say we know you'd
rather be with your family or living at home,
but because of certain circumstances you
can't live alone anymore; you need help. We
think we're the best of the alternatives,"
Mr. Hamburger said.

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