Chicago's Kiva Looking at Big Residential Addictions Play

Addiction Treatment Industry Newswire

10/11/2013 –ATIN – Kiva Recovery, a major Chicago-area higher-end addiction treatment drug rehab alcohol rehab startup, is looking at alternate properties for a big residential play in the underserved metro area after earlier this year being dealt one of the biggest NIMBY blows to center expansion in recent addiction treatment industry history. The ruling by the west suburban Campton Hills board of trustees to deny conversion of a former school property into a center with nearly 100 beds of capacity was a more than $1M hit for Kiva, a consortium of investors and veteran Chicago treatment executive talent. The vote came amidst overwhelming residential opposition to Kiva in well-to-do Campton Hills, where the median home sells for over $400K, and despite previous unanimous village planning commission approval and a jaw-dropping list of concessions rolled out by Kiva Recovery in hopes of smoothing a path to a successful deal.

PHP Rollout

Despite the fact that the local trustees’ rejection of the Kiva plan could very likely have been overruled by the county board, an avenue that disgusted dissenting Campton Hills trustees urged Kiva to pursue, Kiva COO and Managing Partner Phil Kosanovich says that the corrosive effect of a long fight would have been too damaging to the startup’s momentum. With that momentum in evidence, Kiva has a home in the wealthy Northern suburbs of Chicago and in a few weeks will be opening a high-end PHP operation, often referred to in the industry as the Florida Model, with a Vernon Hills, IL, located clinical office. “We will be quickly following that up with Downtown Chicago, southwest suburban and Southern Wisconsin PHP and outpatient operations, says Kosanovich, adding that these facilities were always a part of the startup plan. “The transitional housing in strategic Chicago-area locations combined with multiple IOP locations is an integral part of the continuum of care element of our business plan,” says Kosanovich. He declined to be more specific about the new residential center locations Kiva is eyeing, except to say that the leading candidate “blows away” the Campton Hills location and that the capacity scale will be similar to the former school property.

The NIMBY Fight

Kosanovich says that Kiva spent about 10 months and well into seven figures on its previous effort to convert the 120-acre suburban property, which would have been opening right about now. But after three-quarters of respondents to a post card mailed survey of Campton Hills village residents opposed the Kiva residential treatment center proposal, a packed village meeting erupted in cheers when trustees announced that they were denying approval for the project in a 4 to 2 vote. Despite the fact that there is zero evidence that high-end addictions facilities have ever negatively impacted nearby residential property values, property value erosion was the residents’ chief fear, along with damage to the image of Campton Hills. Predictions that local services would be overtaxed were nixed by a $200K spend offer by Kiva to offset such expenses, as well as state-of-the-art security system installations. The $30K monthly cost of care also assured that a corrections type population would not descend on the village, and Kiva even agreed to restrict in writing the type of census it would accept. Dissenting trustees described the nay majority vote denying approval as “wrongheaded” in local published reports and predicted the trustees’ decision would be easily overturned by the county, an option that Kiva ultimately decided against.

read our story on Kiva and analysis of Chicago market dynamics

read our Special Report: The Midwest Gap

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