New London ― A residential addiction treatment facility on Viets Street has been unable to open its doors as the state has denied it a certificate to do so.

The state argues its owners have not proved its services are a public need and will assist Medicaid patients. The owners say otherwise and vowed to file an appeal to the state Superior Court on Friday.

Landmark Recovery is a national company providing addiction recovery services at 14 facilities across several states. Landmark’s 48-bed facility at 89 Viets St. was formerly a part of Harbor Village Convalescent Home.

Landmark started looking at the property in 2018. Jeff Burm, senior vice president of acquisitions for Landmark, said the company signed a purchase and sale agreement in 2020. According to land records, CCP CAMELOT 0563 LLC purchased the 53,475-square-foot building in 2020.

Called the Praxis of New London by Landmark Recovery, the center would serve adults diagnosed with substance use disorder and other related diagnoses with services that include detox, individual and group therapy and residential treatment.

Burm, who has been working with the company for nearly two years, said the company started in 2016 and its mission is to save a million lives in 100 years.

Burm said the company received local approvals, and the building underwent several months of construction with $3 million in investments. In 2021, local officials granted Landmark Recovery a certificate of occupancy.

But he said it still awaits a certificate of need, which determines if there is a need for the proposed services in the state. Burm said Connecticut data shows there is a need.

According to the state Department of Public Health, there were 1,462 confirmed fatal drug overdoses in 2022, and there have been 102 deaths from drug overdoses as of February this year.

Burm said Landmark originally expected to receive word from the Office of Health Strategy in October 2022. The company found out in December that it was denied the certificate. He said the state’s main reason for denial was that Landmark Recovery would not provide services to those with Medicaid, which is part of HUSKY Health in Connecticut.

Burm said the state did not administer Medicaid funds to addiction treatment at the time Landmark Recovery was working on its application for a certificate of need. By the time Landmark was denied, that had changed, he said.

In April 2022, the state announced it would receive an estimated $30 million in annual federal Medicaid funding to go toward the treatment of substance use disorders.

Following the company’s denial, Burm said the company applied for reconsideration.

“We told them not only are we willing to serve the population with Medicaid, we prefer to serve them. That was clearly stated,” he said. Burm said the company has experience serving Medicaid patients at its other facilities.

In a letter with a final decision issued March 7, the Office of Health Strategy once again denied them the certificate.

In a statement Thursday, Dr. Deidre Gifford, the executive director of the Office of Health Strategy, said the certificate of need program is a regulatory process, and the decisions are based on the evidence in the application judged against the approval criteria spelled out in the statute.

“In the case of Landmark Recovery of Connecticut, OHS determined that the criteria for approval had not been met,” Gifford said.

Burm said the letter fails to acknowledge that Landmark Recovery will serve the patients with Medicaid.

The letter also states Landmark Recovery has not demonstrated that additional facilities to treat patients with addiction issues are needed in the region. It says within Norwich, Groton, New London, Montville and Waterford there were 22 facilities with similar programs and 62 beds, and there are 162 additional beds available when the radius is expanded to 22 towns in the area.

As of Thursday, there were 23 available beds in the state and only two in New London, according to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ system for addiction treatment.

Mayor Michael Passero said he sees a need for the facility in the community.

“The city has done everything on our end to permit the facility,” he said. “We’re disappointed it has not been able to obtain the certificate but will continue to support.”

Passero said the owners have a good relationship with the community, and at the start of the pandemic, allowed the Homeless Hospitality Center to use its facility to quarantine clients who tested positive for COVID-19.

Passero signed a joint letter in support of the facility along with state Reps. Anthony Nolan, D-New London, and Christine Conley, D-Groton, state Sen. Heather Somers, R-District 18, and others. Jeanne Milstein, the city’s director of human services, also provided a letter of support.

“They want us there,” Burm said. “We want to support the community.”

Burm said Landmark Recovery will file an appeal Friday to the Connecticut Superior Court. He said it will also submit a new certificate of need application ― a process that can take six to nine months ― that includes information about serving the patients with Medicaid.

j.vazquez@theday.com

Editor’s note: Information about the purchase price was unclear in an earlier version and will be updated when it becomes available. This version corrects the party who granted the certificate of occupancy.