New owner of sprawling house in Sheffield Lake converting it to senior living group home

SHEFFIELD LAKE — A lakeside property that once housed a convent for as many as 20 nuns is planned as the home of a new senior living group home for up to five residents. The Lake Road house in Sheffield Lake was purchased recently by Kelly Wilms, of Bay Village, a real estate agent who also has experience working in nursing and senior care. She said a senior group home is a perfect fit for the space because the previous owner once intended to have a dementia care facility there. She saw the 4,672-square-foot house — at 4855 E. Lake Road adjacent to Shell Cove Park — was on the market and realized the opportunity was there. The sale closed within the last few months. With 10 bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms, the sprawling residence has more than enough space to accommodate the "Live Love Lake" senior living facility. Wilms said she chose to only accept five residents because the property would have to be rezoned if she accepted more. She said the idea is to attract "a niche market, a higher-end senior living." "They could have two bedrooms per patient, which is a unique feature," Wilms said. "Most patients (in similar facilities) get one, maybe, to themselves. Sometimes they share a room. Because there are pretty much two rooms per patient, they could have a bonus room to do crafts or have a loved one spend the night or have a sitting room." Wilms said she was interested in senior group homes because her own grandmother and step-grandmother lived in houses with the same concept. Live Love Lake is not completely ready yet. Wilms said once she gets her occupancy permit, she is good to go. She also is waiting on her background check to come back. "After that, it's really just a matter of marketing and finding my patients," she said. Wilms is planning to charge in the neighborhood of $5,000 and $6,000 per month, a fee that will include meals and snacks, assistance from state tested nursing assistants, medical appointment transportation, grooming, activities, entertainment and more. A couple of distinctions between a group home and assisted living are that patients in the group home must be able to walk and have the cognitive ability to take their own medications, Wilms said. The house has a long history and still sits on its original foundation, Wilms said, although much has changed since nuns lived on the property. She said the previous owner, James Kolleda, bought the property from the Catholic diocese and essentially remade the entire structure from the ground up. "The foundation is like 200 years old. It's really old," Wilms said. "He did a lot to it, but it's still the same original structure of the ground with the foundation." The upstairs was designed with numerous bedrooms, bathrooms and a common area to accommodate a dementia care facility there, she said. Kolleda never did realize that goal, she said. Wilms has made some changes already, including the addition of a stairlift and ramps that can be added and removed if residents are unable to go up single stairs on their own. More information on the property is available at livelovelakeseniorliving.com, or by contacting Wilms at (440) 315-5553 or Kellymwilms@gmail.com. Contact the reporter Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.