Smith Mountain Lake is to get it’s first ever assisted living facility! This is exciting news for those who have a family member who cannot live alone, but neither do they want to send them half way across the state. A couple from Lynchburg, Vickie and Brian Runk understand having a member of the family with special needs as well as wanting to stay near Smith Mountain Lake. Courtney Cutright of the Roanoke Times Online has written the following article on the new adult-care home.

“Brian and Vickie Runk, who have interests in several adult-care homes, will break ground later this month at Westlake (for a new one).

When Brian and Vickie Runk of Lynchburg came to Smith Mountain Lake as vacation home owners in 2002, the couple were in search of rest, solace and healing.

“Our son, [Christopher] who was 12 at the time, had just been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes,” Vickie Runk said. “We fell in love with the lake. It became a part of our heart and soul.”

Five years later, the Runks are coming to the lake for a reason other than pleasure: business.

Later this month, the Runks, in conjunction with Vickie Runk’s parents, Norman and Linda Pratt, plan to break ground on the lake area’s first assisted-living facility.

Runk & Pratt Residential Adult Care at Westlake Towne Center will be the family’s fourth adult-care facility and will feature both assisted-living and memory-care units.

“Mr. [Ron] Willard contacted us,” Vickie Runk said.

The self-made millionaire developer has been evaluating plans for an assisted-living facility at Westlake Towne Center since petitioning the Franklin County Board of Supervisors to approve the 140-acre development in 2000.

Willard sold a tract of land at the center to a Stuart-based assisted-living operation in 2000 with the contingency that an adult-care facility be built there within a specified time. If the work was not completed on time, the purchaser was to deed the land back to Willard.

The case eventually was heard in Franklin County Circuit Court and the deed was returned to Willard, but the ordeal tied up the parcel for more than four years.

“When I was working with Brian Runk and his people, I felt more comfortable with them than anyone,” Willard said. “They own the facilities, manage the facilities and make their living from it.”

Since development at the center began seven years ago, some $40 million of construction has been completed. Willard said he expects the assisted-living facility to cost $11 million to $12 million more.

“It makes me feel good,” he said. “I brought the first golf course to Smith Mountain Lake. I brought the first bank to Smith Mountain Lake. I brought the first and second grocery stores … [and now] the first assisted-living to Smith Mountain Lake. We are growing.”

In the first phase of construction at Runk & Pratt’s Westlake facility, 14 independent-living cottages will be built around the main building. Twenty-five acres will allow the project to expand as needed, Brian Runk said.

The assisted-living center will be a 43,000-square-foot facility offering assisted-living, memory care and end-of-life care. The Westlake location will be the first of Runk & Pratt’s ventures to offer all three levels of care under one roof. Currently, the company’s Forest facility is the only one to offer Alzheimer’s and other dementia care.

“This is sort of the pinnacle of our career,” Vickie Runk said.”

Authored by Courtney Cutright at Roanoke.com.