EAST LIVERPOOL – The former East Liverpool Motor Lodge, closed for two years, is being eyed by the owner of a local nursing home for a health care facility.

The shuttered motel was recently purchased by ELML Investments LLC of Chagrin Falls, which also owns Valley Oaks Care Center, formerly Nentwick’s Convalescent Center.

City officials have been meeting with ELML executive Eli Gunzburg for some time in regard to his plans to convert the motel into an assisted living facility, and Planning Director Bill Cowan has announced a public hearing with the Planning Commission at 5:15 p.m. July 12 to consider a zoning classification change for the property.

The request by ELML is to change from the current B-4, highway business, to B-3, institutions and offices, with Cowan saying this week there is no allowable uses under the existing classification for a health care facility, meaning the zoning change is necessary for the plans to progress.

The application for the zoning change did not include any specific plans for the health care facility, and calls for comment to Gunzburg’s office have not been returned, but city officials said it could mean 130 new jobs, if the project is completed.

Generally, detailed plans for such a proposal are outlined during the public hearing.

The 69-bed motel had been in business since 1982 when the city annexed the property on which it began as the Best Western Motor Lodge, owned by Al Gloekner.

When it closed, the facility had been operated since 2006 by Intenergy Enterprises, with president and general manager Tom Wycoff at the helm.

Wycoff closed the motel, the T-Bones American Grille and Haircut Express on April 2, 2014, citing the downward trend in local hotel room demand, coupled with the rising cost of maintaining the aging facility as the reasons.

Wycoff said at that time he had invested personal funds into the facility anticipating an upswing in business from the oil and gas industry that did not come fast enough to offset the rising costs.

Also on the agenda of the July 12 Planning Commission meeting will be street vacation requests from Christopher J. DeSarro and Craig Stowers.