By Kate Snyder
An assisted living center on Vashon Island that closed its doors last year has traded hands for $11 million, or approximately $196,428 per unit, according to King County public records. The Vashon Community Care Center was sold by Vashon Community Care, a group that is owned by Transforming Age, a nonprofit organization dedicated to senior care. The buyer was an entity affiliated with the Seattle Indian Health Board.
Located at 15333 Vashon Hwy SW, the facility has 56 units and sits on 4.6 acres, property records show. The two-story building is 40,115 square feet and was built in 2002.
The Seattle Indian Health Board is a community health center that specializes in the care of Native people, according to the organization’s website. The board was founded in 1970 and operates two sites and is in the process of opening more. In 2020, the organization served more than 4,600 patients, more than 60 percent of whom identified as American Indian and/or Alaska Native.
Based in Bellevue, Transforming Age is a nonprofit organization committed to improving the lives of seniors through housing, community services, technology and philanthropy, according to the group’s website.
In 2021, Transforming Age and Vashon Community Care announced that the center on Vashon Island would be closing its doors. The reasons cited for the closure in the announcement included a decreased demand for assisted-living services, ongoing staffing shortages and a critical budget shortfall. VCC had been losing money for several years prior to the closure and relied on Transforming Age to make up operating losses.
“We know the island community cares deeply for VCC and our residents,” said Jeff Slichta, executive vice president of housing & hospitality for Transforming Age, at the time of the announcement. “But these latest challenges have made it so that VCC can no longer continue.”
