An encounter at a beauty pageant and cake fundraiser led to a Jay, Fla. company buying the former Country Place Senior Living building on McRae Street.

Jack Floyd, co-owner of Longterm Care of Atmore LLC DVA, The Summit, who has assisted living facilities in Jay and Gulf Breeze, said Atmore Realty’s Ann Gordon was a judge at a pageant at Jay High School, and was one of two bidders at a cake fundraiser.

“I was the auctioneer for the cake auction,” Floyd said. “She bought several, and she bid on several of them. We were able to raise $3,500 from the fundraiser for Project Graduation.

“There were three fundraisers scheduled, but due to the cake auction, they canceled the other two,” he said. “I’ve never seen one that successful.”

Floyd said shortly afterward, around April of this year, they heard that Country Place was closing.

“Then, when we heard that country place was going to close, I remembered her (Ann) from the cake auction and beauty pageant,” he said. “I called her, and since then, we’ve become good friends. We just established a friendship.”

Floyd said the negotiation for the building has been going on since April. His company bought the building in late October.

“It’s been a seven or eight month process,” he said. “We never gave up, and we just maintained hope and the vision of our group being in Atmore. We knew we wanted to be here, and the community wanted us here.”

Floyd said the group that manages the assisted living facilities in Gulf Breeze and Jay is comprised of two family practice physicians, an optometrist, a certified public accountant, a pastor and himself.

The assisted living facility in Jay is a 70-bed facility. The Gulf Breeze facility is holds 110 beds.

The Atmore facility will be licensed for 28 beds. The facility holds 24 rooms.

Floyd said he believes he’ll be able to start housing residents before January because it was previously licensed.

He said the licensing process includes making sure there’s a medical director, administrator and director of nursing on staff, along with making sure the building is structurally sound.

Floyd said the building, which is structurally sound, has to be located in close distance to a fire department, fire hydrant, a hospital and must be handicap accessible, to name a few.

The second part of the application process involves license numbers for the medical director and the director of nursing, he said.

Floyd said the company is excited to be located in Atmore.

“We are very excited to be a part of the community of Atmore,” he said. “We have been welcomed here in many ways by the many people here. We chose Atmore, and it seems as though Atmore has now chosen us.”