Rev. Mike Bailey, senior pastor of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, said Autumn Care will be open to people of all faiths

A partnership owned by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority and Rocky Mount-based Autumn Corp. will begin building a 102-bed nursing home this spring on property it will lease from Mt. Zion United Methodist Church off South Main Street.

The project will cost $12 million to build and will create more than 100 full-time equivalent positions. It will take about a year to complete: Plans call for the nursing home to open in mid-2013.

The project is significant. Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville opened in 2004 with half as many beds.

With 3,000 employees and 24 nursing homes, Autumn Corp. is an important player in the nursing home business in North Carolina and Virginia. The company, which dates back three decades, will own 90 percent of the project. The Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority will own the remaining 10 percent.

While the facility will sit on church-owned land south of the sanctuary and the nearby cemetery, Mt. Zion leased it to the Autumn/CMHA joint venture that will own and operate the nursing home.

As such the LLC will pay property taxes, said Doug Suddreth, vice president of development at Autumn Corp. The nursing home, which provides nursing care 24-7, will have 102 beds including 42 private rooms. The cost for a non-private room is around $5,000 a month, but most of the cost is covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

The timing is right for a nursing home in North Mecklenburg.

“We are in the unique position where we have a facility in the heart of North Mecklenburg surrounded by the lake with 40-plus acres of land, so that we felt, as good stewards of the land, we should try and understand how the land might be developed, as well as assist in the community.” John Langston, chair of the Mt.Zion’s vision planning committee.

The Huntersville Oaks was rebuilt in Huntersville as a smaller facility in 2007, with half as many rooms as it originally had.

Because of the Certificate of Need process for new health care facilities in North Carolina, rebuilding Huntersville Oaks as a smaller facility created 102 unutilized but authorized beds.

The joint venture between Autumn Corp. and the Charlotte Mecklenburg  Hospital Authority utilizes those beds.

The nursing home is part of the 180-year-old church’s vision for the future.

“We are in the unique position where we have a facility in the heart of North Mecklenburg surrounded by the lake with 40-plus acres of land, so that we felt, as good stewards of the land, we should try and understand how the land might be developed, as well as assist in the community,” said John Langston, chair of the church’s vision planning committee.

Dating back to around 2003-04, church leaders began to work on how to manage the destiny of Mt. Zion’s 40 acres by talking to members. After a retreat in 2004, the church’s long-range plans began to include different kinds of living options for seniors, ranging from cottages and congregant living for independent seniors, to assisted living, to a nursing home. The nursing home, the first piece to be built, is part of the vision of the church being a center of a community where there are no boundaries between the church and the town.

The church, which was originally started near Magnolia Estates before the Civil War, has seen Cornelius grow up around it, with the Antiquity development coming right up to the property line on the north side. The Red Line commuter rail is expected to bring more visibility if it is built, but a key entrance to the church grounds, at Smith Road, was recently closed by the town, affecting the volume of first-time visitors.

By investing in the property — and the community — the church fulfills its mission to reach out to the community. Planned are spiritual trails, complete with art, as well as a school. There are already two residential facilities on Mt. Zion property for developmentally disabled adults.

But the notion of helping seniors fits into the graying of the entire population. A wave of Baby Boomers is looking to care for their own elderly parents in the town that they have adopted. Still others want to “age in place” in their own home town.

The Rev. Mike Bailey, who has been senior pastor of the church since 2002, said Autumn Care will be open to people of all faiths.

Why is this important?

Bailey said: “Jesus taught us that there is a sacramental quality to caring for those who are the most vulnerable, the people who are on the edges… those folks who gave us this great community and this great church and this great country. To care for them is an honor. To care for them is a way of serving Christ.”