Peter and Candy LaPlante, of Spokane, have bought the building that had housed the now-defunct Bethany Home elder-care facility in the Spokane Valley, and plan to reopen a new elder-care operation there called Bethany Place.


The buildings previous owner, the North Pacific Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, of Mercer Island, Wash., had operated an elder-care facility there until closing it early last December. Both the buyer and the seller decline to disclose the terms of the transaction.


The 82-year-old, three-story building, located at the northeast corner of Upriver Drive and Argonne Road, includes 12,500 square feet of floor space and is situated on 7.5 acres of land, much of which is vacant. Peter LaPlante says the couple is making cosmetic improvements to the building, and expects to complete that work in the next three weeks.


The LaPlantes formed Bethany Place Inc. to operate the elder-care home, which is licensed to house up to 32 residents, and the new company will hire up to 14 employees to work there, LaPlante says.


The facility is licensed as an adult residential care home, which is similar to an assisted-living facility, but cant be classified as such because it doesnt have a private bathroom in each living unit.


The LaPlantes have no immediate plans to expand the facility, but LaPlante says, I can see, at some point, the need to put another couple hundred units out there.


Evangelical Covenant Church had disclosed plans in late 2000 to remodel the building and expand it so it would include 116 living units. The church also envisioned eventually constructing 37 independent-living cottages there, which would have given the operation 153 units in all.


Mark Novak, Mercer Island-based superintendent for the church, says that after the expansion project was announced, several other senior-housing projects opened in the Valley, and competition intensified. The church decided last September to close Bethany Home, and the last of the residents moved out Dec. 1.


Were excited its going to continue as a retirement community, Novak says.


The LaPlantes also own Mallon Place Inc., which operates a 60-resident elder-care facility at 1724 W. Mallon, in northwest Spokane. LaPlante says they have owned and operated that facility for eight years.