Shelby to get $70M vets home

Former Arlington center picked for site

NASHVILLE — State officials have selected the old Arlington Developmental Center site in northeast Shelby County for a new $70 million veterans home.

Officials of the Tennessee State Veterans’ Homes Board told the state Senate’s Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Thursday of the site’s selection over other sites reviewed in Fayette, Shelby and Tipton counties.

The board hopes to acquire 40 to 45 acres, behind the Arlington Sports Complex that fronts on Memphis-Arlington Road west of Paul Barret Parkway and

north of Interstate 40. The nursing home will house 144 Tennessee veterans of U.S. military service.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will pay $45.5 million of the Arlington home’s price tag. The state and local governments and private fundraising must generate the remaining $24.5 million before the VA releases its funding for construction.

Shelby County government has allocated $2 million, and the state has allocated $650,000 so far on site selection, planning and preparation. Fundraising efforts are underway by the West Tennessee Veterans Home board, a nonprofit group based in Memphis.

The Tennessee State Veterans’ Homes Board runs homes in Humboldt, Knoxville and Murfreesboro, and four others are in various stages of planning: 108-bed homes in Clarksville, Cleveland and the Tri-Cities area of northeast Tennessee, and the 144-bed home in Arlington. The Arlington home will be the second in West Tennessee.

State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who has worked toward construction of the home for several years, said there are 70,000 veterans in the Shelby, Tipton and Fayette county area “that either need or will need the special attention the home provides. It’s good to see that an existing (state) site be able to be repurposed.

“Construction depends on when we can raise the local money,” said Norris, a member of the Senate subcommittee. “It’s a real grassroots effort for the veterans and this wouldn’t get done if it wasn’t for the grassroots effort.”