Bull Valley mansion now an upscale senior care group home after forfeited by convicted drug dealer

Property’s original owner did not see renovation finished before 2019 death

Before the Bull Valley mansion on North Cherry Valley Road was at the center of a 2017 police raid that found drugs, guns and money, it was the home of Charles Budreck Jr.

“I think he really wanted to go back, but he was pretty happy where he was,” Budreck’s son, Mike Budreck, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Budreck, however, died at 95 in Barrington in December 2019, before he could see a fully complete transformation of his former property into a senior care group home.

Since McHenry-based Shepherd Premier Senior Living – which is financially backed by Theresa Maskrey; her husband, Steve; and company founder Brandon Schwab – bought the property for $750,000 in 2018, the business has put more than $1.3 million into renovations, fixes and upgrades, Schwab said.

The house at 1001 N. Cherry Valley Road was forfeited, along with $79,000 in assets, by David Soskin in 2018, when he agreed to a plea deal, in which he received a 10-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to possession with the intent to deliver more than 12 pounds of marijuana.

Hundreds of pounds were discovered at the property when law enforcement authorities raided it in May 17, along with drug ledgers, cash, several guns and ammunition.

Mike Budreck said before his dad died, he was aware that a new use as senior care was in the works and looking forward to participating it on the property, which was built over two years in the 1970s by the elder Budreck and his wife, Mary Alice Galvin Budreck, who died at the age of 83 in 2013, according to an obituary published in the Northwest Herald.

Mike Budreck, who lived in the house for five years after college in his early to mid-20s and recalled “great parties” and Christmas decorations in every room during the holidays, said he supported the idea to turn it into senior care as Schwab, the Maskreys and their team presented plans to Bull Valley’s village officials. Now, Mike Budreck lives just minutes away from his former home.

When Schwab and his team decided to take over the estate, much work needed to be done to get it ready for seniors who are no longer able or wanting to live independently.

“It was a disaster,” Schwab said. But now that the work on the place is done, more than two years since the purchase, he and his coworkers are describing it as “state of the art.”

The local senior living company added an elevator and four new bathrooms, so there now are 15.5 throughout the house, Schwab said. It also split what was once a humongous master bedroom into three bedrooms, to give it a total of nine bedrooms now.

The home now has a maximum capacity of 16 residents, with seven bedrooms set to be shared by two residents each, and two bedrooms that are solo units, he said.

For a $6,500 monthly base rate that can adjust depending on the level of care a potential resident needs, one can live at Shepherd Premier Bull Valley, the new name of the estate set to open this month as an elder home business.

Like a larger nursing home with more residents, Shepherd Premier Bull Valley offers assisted living staff and medical care to address a variety of needs encountered by older adults right on site, including memory care, incontinence and hospice care. But he said the business will keep a five-to-one patient to caregiver ratio maximum, a lower one than some other senior living centers.

Schwab has sought out existing residences in northern Illinois to turn into assisted living homes, starting with a Ringwood structure that now is under the ownership of another family.

Now, Schwab and Premier operate a total of four homes that have no more than 16 residents total, with three in McHenry County in Crystal Lake, Harvard and now Bull Valley, and one in Gurnee.

Plus, the business is working to complete another project in Huntley near the intersection of Farm Hill Drive and Regency Parkway, where there would be buildings of up to 20 older residents needing care, Schwab said. It would be the company’s first new build, if brought to fruition.

He and others in the aging care industry call the smaller scale model “boutique senior living,” and it has gained popularity over the past few years.

The market for the less dense model of senior living that will now be featured in Bull Valley has especially picked up because of the COVID-19 outbreak, industry publications have reported.

Theresa Maskrey said the business intentionally left the commercial kitchen open to the dining area in an effort to keep a more homey feel in the space, rather than enclosing and separating the cooking area like traditional senior living establishments.

“This is their home, and you don’t eat in a stainless steel room,” Theresa Maskrey said.

Additionally, the indoor pool and hot tub still are a part of the property, and will be available to guests of residents to use, which Maskrey believes will prevent youth from becoming bored during a visit with grandparents, as they might at assisted living centers without such amenities.

Shepherd Premier’s marketing director, Kay Reissig, claimed the estate, at about 18,000 square feet on more than 30 acres of land, is one-of-a-kind for assisted living in Illinois.

“It’s a more personalized approach to care,” said Dr. Ken Albrecht, who is in charge of internal medicine for Shepherd Premier.

Four to five residents could move in as early as the end of this week, Theresa Maskrey said, and they are mostly from the northern Illinois area.

The assisted living business will be confined to the top two floors of the home, while there will be no formalized use for the lowest level, which consists of an elegant, circular full bar and more spacious living area. The bottom floor will be used by staff mostly.