A personal care home opening in Unity may have the most luxurious — and expensive — suites in Westmoreland County.
April 1 will mark the debut of The Fountains at Latrobe, after about 10 months of construction and interior preparations.
The Fountains’ flat monthly fee for a standard suite begins at just under $6,000. The facility has four larger suites each capable of accommodating a senior couple.
“I think that’s a good deal,” said Fountains developer Marcy Colkitt of Indiana County. She said the fee includes all services, other than the on-site beauty salon, with an emphasis on personalized attention.
There are a number of other personal care homes in the area, offering various levels of services. Seniorly online resource center estimated costs around Westmoreland County range from $1,700 to $5,150 per month, with an average cost of $4,870. But this local median price falls short of the state average. Long-term care financial company Genworth reported in 2024 that the average cost of assisted living in Pennsylvania is $5,550 per month, an increase of 35.37% since the last report in 2021.
Colkitt said some senior residents will be moving into the luxury, 22-room Unity facility from area communities. One will be relocating in May from South Carolina.
“A lot of the people who are moving in here have been maintaining their own homes,” she said. “Typically, they’re moving to be closer to their families.”
The initial phase of the Fountains covers 15,000 square feet on a single floor. The foundation is in the ground for an adjoining secured memory care unit of a similar size that is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The Fountains is centered around a great room that includes areas for socializing and dining, separated by a double-sided fireplace.
“The value of socialization can’t be overstated,” said Colkitt, a health care lawyer who operates similar personal care facilities in Indiana and DuBois. “When you’re eating with somebody else, it’s more fun.”
In those other facilities, she said, given the relatively small numbers, the residents and their families have formed new friendships.
The Fountains have hosted birthday celebrations for residents and overnight stays by grandchildren.
“It gets very tight-knit,” said Vince Gamble, project manager for Colkitt’s The Fountains Group.
Colkitt’s son, Paul Castro, will be on hand as executive director of the Unity facility, after a previous stint as an administrator of nursing homes with up to 200 residents. He’s moved to Greensburg from Fort Myers, Fla., to take on the new role.
“At the other Fountains facilities, you can see that the staff know their residents pretty well. They know the ins and outs about them, they know what makes them tick,” said Castro. “That’s not something you always get an opportunity to do in skilled nursing.”
Castro will begin operations at the Unity facility with a staff of about 10. That includes a director of dietary services and a handful of kitchen employees.
Colkitt said there will be no set time for breakfast, which is made to order.
At her other facilities, she said, “A lot of the men like minute steaks and eggs for breakfast,” while, among female residents, “Avocado toast is a big thing.”
When warmer weather arrives, barbecues are planned on the outdoor deck.
Residents may not need to venture beyond the facility for routine medical care. Colkitt said medical practitioners and therapists will visit, a mobile X-ray unit will be available and a full-time nurse will oversee medication management.
“The family members go back to being family members, not being caregivers,” she said.
Diversions include games, painting sessions, a songbird enclosure and live entertainment.
“We put a tremendous amount of focus on music,” she said, adding, “We encourage people to keep moving and get those steps in,” including laps around the building.
Colkitt served as her own general contractor for construction of The Fountains at Latrobe, which is on Starlight Court off Arnold Palmer Drive. She came up with the design concept for the facility after visiting several dozen recently constructed care homes in Florida. Then she turned to Young and Associates, an Indiana-based engineering firm.
“They helped figure out how to put it on paper,” she said.
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An Amish builder from the Dayton area of Armstrong County handled much of the construction, including the wood framing, roofing and finishing touches such as the crown molding.
Rose Bertolino of Homer City, former owner of an Agway store in Indiana, will help with landscaping.
Colkitt handled interior decorating, providing a painting of a French street scene to hang above the central fireplace.
“We try to make it pretty and elegant but also comfortable,” she said.