Myerstown firm plans to renovate, reopen senior community in North Annville Twp.

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The owner of a Myerstown-based nursing home company has recently sold two of its facilities and plans to use the income to renovate and reopen a senior residential community it already owns in North Annville Township.

Steven J. Reiter, president and CEO of StoneRidge Retirement Living, made that announcement to the North Annville planning commission members at their April 7 meeting. He told commission members he would like to operate a facility that offers senior services at the former Countryside Christian Community, 200 Bellann Court, Annville.

Part of the tentative proposal would be to utilize the existing cottages and have a total of 34 cottages for residents for independent living and construct apartments in the location of the largest building onsite. Reiter said the facility would initially offer 60 beds in an apartment complex with an option to add 30 more for a total of 90 in addition to the cottages. 

“What we want to do is build that stuff that’s more designed to be able to accommodate senior services happening right inside the home,” Reiter said. “Instead of somebody transferring from one level of care to the next level of care, we’re looking to be able to make the units capable of actually allowing us to provide service right in the home and add a home care license, home health services to that.”

Although no building plans were presented at this meeting, this isn’t the first time Reiter has approached township officials about using that site for a facility that would be run by his Myerstown-based business. 

Several years ago, Reiter presented blueprints to township officials that would have included a healthcare center that would replace the largest structure on the Annville campus while also using other existing buildings on the former Countryside Christian Community site. His company purchased the property in the late 2010s but closed most of the facility prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of the cottages are being rented to residents, but the main building is closed.

The first set of blueprints called for the main building in the center of the campus to be razed and a two-story structure (24-25 feet) built in its place. Now, however, Reiter said he envisions that building being 45 feet, which would require action by township officials since the zoning ordinance limits the height of buildings to 2.5 stories, or just over 27 feet.

“I remember the discussion at the supervisor level when we talked to (former chairman) Randy (Leisure) and one wasn’t to make it look like there’s these big city buildings and so forth. So that was part of the intent to make sure we didn’t let it grow too large if we went to the back side of the property,” Reiter said. “That’s where we felt we might be able to have additional floors because it wouldn’t be obtrusive since that’s over the bottom of the hill and nobody’s really being impacted by that potential height increase as you go back to the back side.”

Reiter said the new plans are mostly similar to the previous proposal with several other changes, including the construction of apartments in what was formally proposed to be the healthcare center. 

“Since the last time we were here and presented, the concept was really what they call a full-fledged continuing care retirement community, which encompasses independent living, personal care, skilled nursing,” he said. “You know that little thing that happened through 2020 to 2022 called COVID, it sort of shocked the entire industry and certainly changed the landscape and changed our mindset of how we need to focus and approach moving forward. Our intention (now) is to make it 90 percent residential at the end of the day.”

Coming out of COVID, the company’s business model has changed.

“So major, major change is it won’t have that three designated, three levels of care anymore. Still may be a need at some point for skilled nursing. I don’t wanna rule that out, that we may need some skilled nursing,” Reiter said. “We lost during COVID because of what took place and because construction costs blew out of proportion, we lost our right to maintain our licenses out there. So in order to do it, we have to transfer licenses from one of our other facilities. We still have licenses to be able to do that, but we also know that’s probably not the 100 percent direction (to go).” 

Reiter told commission chairman Nelson Heagy that the company plans to “preserve the ag portion” of land that sits adjacent to the complex, and is uncertain whether a high pressure sewage line system would be installed, which was part of the original plan.

“We currently have on-lot. Depending on the size now, because this size may be shrinking significantly, the on-lot probably supports the new size,” Reiter said. “Don’t know if that’s the right approach now or not. Again, that’s what we’re looking at and saying, ‘Do we even need to go to the high pressure system now?’ That capacity that we were going to have (with the original plan), would have mandated it.”

Reiter told commission members that next steps include finalizing the sale of two of its former assets over the rest of this month. 

We, in full disclosure, we just sold two of our communities. One in Myerstown (StoneRidge Towne Centre) and one in Carlisle. Primarily skilled nursing. We’re now looking at how we’re going to deploy those assets, with one of them being the build out of Countryside,” he said. “So that’s sort of our step that we’re in right now. That just happened April 1st, we turned over the management of the communities and in another month, they should officially be sold and the transaction complete.”

As is standard in the review protocol for fundamental change transactions affecting healthcare nonprofits, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (OAG) is reviewing both transactions. According to a January 2025 letter sent to StoneRidge residents (PDF), the potential buyer for both homes is MDA Capital, owned by Akiva Glatzer and David Gamzeh of Priority Care Group. However, a spokesperson for the OAG said that Myerstown Nursing and Rehab is the potential operator of Town Centre. Department of State records indicate that Myerstown Nursing and Rehab was organized by Gamzeh.

Reiter added that the sales will allow his company to move forward with operating smaller facilities.

“At that point, we now know we have the funds to be able to start moving forward in something that’s more reasonable in cost and manageable in project size,” he added.

In other business, the planning commission moved to:

• Review a proposal to replace a zoning ordinance concerning fences, walls and hedges.
• Tell attendees that township supervisors sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on March 25 announcing their support for a four-way stop and other traffic improvements for Hill Church Road and Thompson Avenue intersection.
• Note that Commonwealth Court has cancelled oral arguments for Tuesday, April 8, for Lebanon Solar’s appeal, and that the court will decide the matter based on the company’s and the township’s written briefs.
• Announce a zoning variance hearing on Thursday, April 10, for 6:30 p.m. at Water Works Firehall for the Van Der Ploog property on North Weaber Street concerning the installation of self-storage units on that property.
• Inform attendees that a macadam patch on Clear Spring Road was completed with SRL-E blacktop reportedly has “excellent” skid resistance level.
• Announce the Lebanon County tire collection event on April 30. Participants need to preregister by April 14 for this year’s program.
• Announce the Arbor Day celebration in Lebanon on Friday, April 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Gloninger Woods Park, 115 S. 22nd St., Lebanon. Rain date is May 2. 
• Approve the minutes of their March 3 meeting.

Read More: PennDOT reconsiders N. Annville Twp. intersection traffic improvement plan

The North Annville Township Planning Commission meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday of the month at the Union Water Works Fire Company social hall, 2875 Water Works Way, Annville.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include more information on the potential buyer of StoneRidge Town Centre.