A Des Moines nursing home that is already facing litigation over a proposed sale to New York investors is now being sued for $767,343 in allegedly unpaid bills.

The federal lawsuit filed this week by Sodexo Operations, a nursing home management company, alleges that it in 2021 entered into an agreement with Calvin Community to manage the 188-unit, continuing-care facility on Des Moines’ Hickman Road. Sodexo says the contract called for it to provide the facility with housekeeping, linen and laundry services, operational and maintenance services and groundskeeping.

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Sodexo alleges that at some unspecified time last year, Calvin Community stopped paying for those services. In December 2025, Sodexo alleged it sent the facility notice that it was in breach of contract, specifying $424,145 in past-due service charges, plus $86,174 in interest that was accrued and owing, for a total balance of $510,319.

On March 12, 2026, Sodexo now alleges, it sent Calvin Community a demand for payment of $767,343, which included additional expenses and accrued interest. None of that debt has been paid, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit seeks damages for breach of contract unjust enrichment. Calvin Community has yet to file a response to the lawsuit and company officials have not responded to calls from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Calvin Community is one of Iowa’s larger retirement communities and includes a 59-bed nursing home and an array of independent-living apartments and assisted-living units.

Prospective buyer sues Calvin Community

Last month, a separate federal lawsuit was filed against Calvin Community, seeking a judicial order to compel the nonprofit owner to sell the facility to Everview Group, which is a trio of New York-based investors who allege they have spent almost a year negotiating a purchase of the property.

Court records indicate the Everview partners and potential buyers of Calvin Community are Isaac Moskowitz, David Herskowitz and Jeffrey Arem.

According to Everview’s lawsuit against Calvin Community, plans for the sale involved Everview acting as a “placeholder” buyer, with management of the facility eventually transferred to a separate, fully vetted “high-quality successor operator” that would run the operation.

Federal courts are public forums, and there is a strong presumption in favor of openness as to court records.– U.S. Magistrate Judge William P. Kelly

As the planned date of closing drew near, Everview alleges, Calvin Community “abruptly sought to manufacture a termination of the parties’ agreements” so that it could accept “a more lucrative alternative offer received from a third party.” The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking such a sale, in part to “protect the continuity of care for the facility’s residents.” The lawsuit also seeks a court order that would compel Calvin Community “to take all actions necessary to consummate” the planned sale to Everview.

The lawsuit claims Everview and Calvin Community first entered into a purchase agreement in May 2025, through which the property was to be sold for $9.4 million. In January 2026, the agreed-upon sale price was dramatically reduced from $9.4 million to $6 million, the lawsuit alleges, “to account for the facility’s physical condition,” and to “account for funds previously mishandled” by Calvin Community.

The price reduction, combined with $636,591 in assumed liabilities, resulted in an agreed-upon final sale price of $5,363,409, according to the lawsuit.

Company asked court to seal records

Calvin Community, Everview now alleges, had been “secretly negotiating with — and has potentially reached an agreement with — a third-party buyer to sell the property” for more than what Everview had agreed to pay. The lawsuit characterizes this as “a transparent effort” by Calvin Community to “escape its contractual obligations to Everview to pursue a more lucrative windfall.”

In addition to an injunction blocking Calvin Community’s efforts to “shop the property and the facility to third-party buyers to secure a more lucrative deal,” the lawsuit also seeks damages and legal fees for alleged breach of contract.

Calvin Community has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.

On May 19, four days after the Capital Dispatch first reported on the lawsuit, Everview, with Calvin Community’s concurrence, asked the court to seal its complaint in the case, citing a need to protect “sensitive business information.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge William P. Kelly refused, writing in his order that “federal courts are public forums, and there is a strong presumption in favor of openness as to court records.”

Kelly stated that without further information regarding the nature of Everview’s interest in confidentiality and how it relates to the specifics of the lawsuit, the company had not met its burden for having the court records sealed.