Recovery Centers of America announced Thursday that it is spending $13.7 million to transform Bracebridge Hall, a former corporate retreat for MBNA in Cecil County's Earleville, into a drug and alcohol treatment center.
The King of Prussia, Pa.-based company is turning the 31,000-square-foot mansion set on 557 acres on the Eastern Shore into a 108-bed residential facility. The bayfront center is scheduled to open in July and will employ 70 people full time.
The expanding Recovery Centers recently raised $231.5 million to build centers for addiction medicine nationwide. It's acquired seven other sites in the Northeast and plans to operate 1,200 beds by the end of 2018.
Cecil County has been particularly hard hit by the opioid epidemic in Maryland. Recovery Centers uses what it calls a "neighborhood-based treatment model," based on research that shows patients are more likely see sustained recovery if they remain connected to family and friends.
Built as a private residence in 1991, Bracebridge Hall was acquired in 1997 by the Delaware-based credit card company MBNA America. MBNA later sold it to developers who envisioned an executive golf course community. Those plans evaporated in the housing crunch and recession, and the property was auctioned off in 2013.