Residents ‘Pray’ : Retirement Complex Sold at Auction

Residents wore buttons saying “Everything is Going to Be OK,” but after their retirement village was auctioned Friday, they weren’t so sure anymore.

“I don’t know what will happen to us now,” said Carl W. Segerhammar, 81, who has lived in La Serena retirement village in Thousand Oaks for six years. “It would be so expensive to move.”

A spokesman for LAV Care Corp., which bought the retirement home for $6 million by entering a last-minute bid, declined comment on the company’s plans for the 150-unit complex, where 85 senior citizens reside.

“We’ll let you know in two weeks,” Ronald D. Aubert told a stunned group of about 10 elderly residents who attended the auction at a title company in Ventura. Many wore small buttons that said “EGBOK”--shorthand for “Everything is Going to Be OK.”

Illinois Operator

Residents had hoped that the financially troubled facility would be bought at the foreclosure sale by Lutheran General Health Care System, a retirement home operator based in Park Ridge, Ill., Segerhammar said.

Lutheran General entered the second-highest bid--$5.6 million--but lost by $400,000 to LAV Care Corp. The bidding between four companies began at $2 million and slowly rose in $100,000 increments.

As the tension mounted, La Serena resident Mary Moe clenched her hands and muttered: “I’m praying, I’m praying.”

After the auction, George Caldwell, president of Lutheran General, said he was “very, very disappointed. We were interested in keeping La Serena the way it was.”

Paula L. Gibson, a deputy attorney general attending the auction, said LAV Care Corp. must give residents 90 days notice and show “good cause” if it plans to close the facility.

In addition, the company will “have to go through the standard planning process and hearings” if it wants to use the 6.5-acre retirement village for any other purpose, said Tammy McLean, a management analyst for the city of Thousand Oaks.

‘A Rough Night’

“We’re in for a rough night at La Serena because of the uncertainty,” said Myrna Gordon, spokeswoman for Pacific Homes, which operates the retirement village at Moorpark and Olsen roads.

Financial problems surfaced at La Serena last summer when officials of Pacific Homes issued 30-day eviction notices to residents, saying the complex was almost broke.

The complex’s owner, La Serena Manor, owed about $11 million, said Keith R. Marshall, a vice president of Security Pacific National Bank, one of the creditors.

Proceeds from Friday’s sale will be distributed among the facility’s bondholders, who will lose money on the investment, Marshall said.

Nearly all of the residents paid between $25,000 and $110,000 for apartments at the 7-year-old complex, Gordon said. Residents also pay from $850 to $2,800 a month in rent, depending on the size of their apartments and how much daily care they receive, she said.

In July, Thousand Oaks officials and private donors provided $50,000 to keep the facility open long enough to find a buyer. In November, a Ventura Superior Court judge appointed an administrator to oversee the retirement home’s operation.

“We’ve been looking for a new place since the summer but there is nothing comparable,” said Elizabeth Broadston, 80, who has lived at La Serena six years. “Let’s just hope the new owners keep it open.”