NEWPORT — Woodlawn Care Center is a 53-bed nursing home tucked into a former mansion just outside downtown Newport.

The large, white-columned building, built in 1891, sits at the top of a hill. Residents’ rooms and common areas have features such as fireplaces and mantels that are currently covered in festive fall decor.

Many of the residents’ rooms have windows that look onto an expansive lawn, and there is a porch where some like to spend time in warmer weather.

Its residents are mostly local, and its small size also makes it unusual. The average number of certified beds per nursing facility nationwide was 106.6 in 2023 — twice the size of Woodlawn.

The hallways are “like Main Street Newport,” with many new residents recognizing old friends from the area, Maryjane Vigneault, Woodlawn’s administrator, said.

The homelike atmosphere, however, does not insulate Woodlawn from the pressures faced by nursing homes around the country.

On Nov. 1, Woodlawn — the last remaining independently-owned nursing home on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley — was sold to an out-of-state limited liability company, or LLC.

Chris Martin sold the nursing home to Avraham Berger and Aaron Beller of Waterbury, Conn., according to documents submitted to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. Berger and Beller do not own any other nursing homes, but they manage several across the Northeast, state records show.

The new owners purchased the business from Martin and are currently leasing the property, which will be transferred at a later date that is not “definite,” Martin said.

He declined to give the sale price or other details of the purchase. The building and land have a combined value of $3.4 million, according to town assessment records.

Martin sold Woodlawn, which he bought in 2010 after starting as the facility administrator in 2001, because “it’s hard to be an independent.” He has been working as an interim administrator at other facilities “for the last couple of years,” he said.

Being an independent operator makes it difficult to manage contracts with insurance companies, maintain Medicare benefits and comply with the many other requirements of running a nursing home, Martin added.

“For a larger institution, you just have more ability to weather those storms,” Martin said.

Because of the facility’s unique characteristics, Martin said he took the time to find potential buyers who he felt aligned with his goals and would “continue with our mission, which has always been just to care for people locally primarily and provide good, quality care.”

Berger and Beller did not respond to requests for comment via phone and email by deadline Monday.

Vigneault, the Woodlawn administrator, said Friday that the owners did not want to comment on the purchase at this time. Vigneault has worked at Woodlawn for 11 years and continues to serve as the facility’s administrator under the new ownership.

Before the transition, the new owners visited about once per week, Vigneault said. Going forward, they will continue to come to the nursing home “based on need.”

While it’s not clear what other nursing homes the new owners manage, Berger is the president of Serene Health Services, based in Waterbury, Conn., according to filings with the New Hampshire Department of State. The company provides housekeeping and laundry services for health care facilities, according to its website.

Berger also is affiliated with at least 10 active limited liability companies in Connecticut and companies in multiple other states as a principal or agent; Beller is affiliated with several of the companies, Connecticut business records show. These companies include property management, janitorial services, education support services and shoe retail.

Independently owned nursing homes are largely a thing of the past in New Hampshire and around the country.

In the U.S., 69% of nursing homes are owned by for-profit operators, with nearly 80% of those owned by for-profit chains, according to a 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In the Upper Valley, New London’s Clough Center nursing home, owned and operated by New London Hospital and Dartmouth Health, closed in 2016.

In 2017, White River Junction’s Brookside Health and Rehabilitation Center closed two years after it was bought by a group of out-of-state owners.

“It’s a very, very tough business, and when I say tough, I mean it’s under tremendous scrutiny from the state and the feds, the regulations are very onerous and the profit margins are much, much lower than they used to be and the risks are pretty high,” Ellen Flaherty, vice president of the Geriatric Center of Excellence at Dartmouth Health, said in an interview last month.

Some of the factors driving down profit margins are the lack of availability of nursing workforce, an increased reliance on traveling nurses and the rising cost of providing care, Flaherty said. Many facilities rely on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to function, but the increases in these reimbursements often do not keep up with inflation, she added.

The benefits and quality of locally owned or corporate nursing homes vary greatly from case to case, Flaherty added. She said corporate-owned nursing homes have the benefit of “corporate support that could potentially enhance quality,” but at the same time, corporate leadership “can often focus a great deal of their time on profits.”

Woodlawn currently has a rating of two out of five stars based on health inspections, staffing metrics and other quality indicators, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A February inspection report revealed understaffing issues, failure to notify residents about changes in Medicare coverage and instances of not following or updating resident care plans appropriately.

Martin announced the sale to families and residents in a Sept. 24 letter. But he began the process of looking for new owners and training Vigneault to take over operations about 3½ years ago, he said. There have been “a couple of fits and starts” in the process. “I certainly had multiple options and some that I didn’t feel good about, but I feel good about the transition and the new owners taking over,” Martin said. “I don’t think I would sell to a big corporation, I just couldn’t.”

Martin was “managing the day to day” at Woodlawn for 20 years, he said.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever met the new owners and I’m here twice a week,” Chris Wiest, whose mother lives at Woodlawn, said. “I was definitely very familiar with the last owner.”

Wiest’s mother, Nancy Whynall, 95, has lived at Woodlawn for almost six years.

Whynall and her daughter like her room at Woodlawn, which includes a fireplace and mantel that make it feel more homey.

Whynall gets good care at the nursing home, Wiest said, but she added that she would like to meet the new owners.

Louis Hipwell, 102, has lived at Woodlawn for almost four years.

“The place is kept clean,” he said. “I have fresh (linens) every day. I can’t complain.”

Mary Twofoot, 77, has lived at Woodlawn for almost two years. Twofoot and her daughter Lynn Martin, who works in housekeeping at Woodlawn, said Chris Martin will be missed. Twofoot called the former owner “the nice man” and emphasized she liked him and he was “very funny.”

Vigneault, who has played an important role in the ownership transition, said she has “no fears, only positives” about the new ownership.

“I’m really not worried. I’m confident and ready to work with our new owners who show great compassion, support and empathy to our residents,” Vigneault said in a Thursday interview.

Martin will be missed, Vigneault said, but she is “excited for change.”

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

CORRECTION: Before it was sold earlier this month, Woodlawn Care Center was the last  independ ently owned nursing home on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley. An article and webhead in a previous version of this story incorrectly stated Woodlawn’s status among independent facilities in the Upper Valley.