DeKalb County settles lawsuit over failed $8.3M nursing home purchase

SYCAMORE – DeKalb County government has settled a lawsuit filed against private buyers who backed out of a planned $8.3 million sale of the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, records show.

The DeKalb County Board executive committee unanimously voted this month to end the lawsuit and enter into a $250,000 settlement agreement with the would-be buyers.

DeKalb County will receive $202,500 from the would-be buyers. Aaron “Aharon” Singer, of Skokie-based Saba Healthcare which was one entity connected to the purchase contract, will get $47,500 in the settlement, according to county documents. Singer’s settlement money will not come from DeKalb County taxpayers, however. It will come out of an escrow account that Singer put $250,000 into to make a good-faith down payment before the purchase was finalized.

Interim DeKalb County Administrator Derek Hiland said county officials are ready to look toward the facility’s future – which they have repeatedly said will remain under county ownership.

“This settlement agreement provides the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center with the opportunity to turn the page on this difficult chapter of the facility’s history as we look forward and continue providing high quality, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services in our community,” Hiland said in part of a provided statement.

The buyers were under contract to purchase the nursing home in 2023 after months of financial turmoil. The sale was met with significant public pushback, however, including from nursing center unionized employees.

The initial lawsuit filing sought to recover more than $8.3 million in damages, court records show.

The lawsuit settlement is the apparent end of the latest segment in a multi-year saga that befell the county-owned nursing center as it fell into financial upheaval.

In September 2023, the $8.3 million sale of the nursing center fell through.

A month later on Nov. 9, the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s office‘s filed a lawsuit on behalf of DeKalb County that alleged the buyers’ failure to see the sale through caused “substantial financial losses” to the county.

At the time the lawsuit was initially filed, county officials estimated the facility was incurring monthly losses of $200,000. The County Board had authorized monthly emergency cash flows to the center to ensure it remained operational.

When asked how much the facility has made or lost each month so far in 2025, nursing center administrator Bart Becker did not say. Instead, he told Shaw Local News Network he’s working on a financial report he plans to share with the DeKalb County Board’s finance committee in May, however.

Becker was rehired to run the nursing center in late 2022 after the previous administrator left days after the county authorized the now-failed sale. Becker previously worked at the nursing center’s administrator from 2015 to 2018.

The lawsuit named Saba Healthcare and Evanston-based Illuminate H.C. – the only two companies that made purchase offers for the nursing center. The filing also named as defendants Moshe Blonder and Singer of Saba Healthcare and Avi Zuckerman and Israel Davis of Illuminate H.C., as well as Landmark Abstract Agency LLC, the buyers’ escrow agent.

The money that will be doled out for the settlement will come from the $250,000 put into escrow during the sale process by the buyers, records show.

After the DeKalb County Board accepted a letter of intent for a sales agreement with Illuminate H.C. in July 2022, the buyer put $20,000 into an escrow account with Landmark Abstract Agency, according to the terms of the settlement. Another $20,000 was put into the escrow account – which is a money account managed by a third party, in an attempt to protect buyers and sellers in property sales – by the buyers on Jan. 4, 2023. On Feb. 15, 2023, the would-be buyers placed $210,000 into the account, according to the settlement.

County officials later learned that Saba Healthcare had become involved in the sale.

Lawyers representing Singer, Blonder, Davis and Zuckerman did not respond to requests for comment.

Current financial outlook

In the 18 months since the lawsuit was filed, county leaders have taken steps to balance the nursing center’s budget.

In March 2023, the nursing center spent $402,931 on agency staffing, a county official said. The facility spent an average of $252,325 a month in 2023 on agency staffing, according to county documents. In 2024, that monthly average was reduced to $90,562. Now, three months into 2025, that average is down to $14,629 for agency staffing, according to county documents.

In March, the nursing center’s daily census average was about 116 people, about 11 residents shy of what officials have estimated as their break-even point, according to county documents.

As of April 15, the facility had a census of 104 residents, 23 below the targeted number, a county official said. County officials said they tend to see reduced admissions ahead of family holidays, such as Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving.

The facility services permanent residents and also long and short-term residents in need of physical therapy or other health services.

Six years after it was announced, a new wing devoted to transitional care for residents opened in July 2024. Becker has said that opening to expand the type of care the facility could provide, alongside County Board actions have aided the facility’s financial well-being. The nursing center now works with more insurance providers which also has increased its census numbers, he said.

The nursing center admitted 14 more people than they discharged in 2024, according to county documents. Net patient revenue is $198,283 below the $1.6 million target set by Jordan Healthcare Group – the company hired by DeKalb County to create a corrective plan for the once-indebted facility.

The center’s average revenue from daily billing for January, February and March was $46,060, county records show.

“March also had an excellent, I think one of the best months as far as revenue goes in a long, long, long time,” Becker said during the April 9 DeKalb County Board Committee of the Whole meeting.

In a provided statement, Hiland said he wants residents to know the county is committed to making the facility successful.

“As the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center continues to operate as a County-owned facility, we emphasize that the windshield is bigger than the rear-view mirror,” Hiland said. “The facility has come a long way over the past several years with the opening of the Transitional Care Unit, the establishment of an Oversight Board and the continued support of the Nursing Home Foundation and the community.”

The path to the settlement agreement was years in the making, and included counter lawsuits filed by the defendants as well as the dismissal of the initial lawsuit in May 2024, court records show. After that dismissal from Chief Circuit Court Judge Bradley Waller, county officials then re-filed the lawsuit without allegations of fraud by the defendants, according to the updated filing.

From that point forward, lawyers representing the county narrowed the scope of the lawsuit to center around alleged breach of contract.

Earlier this year lawyers from both parties agreed to settlement terms. Those terms were approved in an unanimous vote by the DeKalb County Board’s executive committee on April 9. The committee, comprised of nine board members, has final say on pending litigation.

The settlement agreement includes no admission of liability from any party, according to county documents.

Assistant DeKalb County State’s Attorney David Berault was one of two lawyers who represented DeKalb County in the lawsuit.

“It was the proper time for the county to be able to move forward with fixing any issues at the home from the past without having to continue to argue over the events surrounding the sale,” Berault said.