DEDHAM - Construction has begun on Hebrew SeniorLife's sprawling 256-unit senior housing and care facility and Jewish day school campus on a wooded spot near the banks of the Charles River.
Since December, workers from Turner Construction of Boston have been removing trees at the 160-acre Common Street site in preparation for the construction of NewBridge on the Charles, a more than $300 million multigenerational community that will include a long-term care facility and assisted-living and supportive housing units for seniors.
After the workers clear a more than 60-acre swath, construction of the campus will begin in late summer or early fall, with an eye toward a fall 2009 completion, said Ruth Stark, director of marketing for HSL, and Michael Crowley, vice president of project management for the Boston area nonprofit health-care provider.
Stark and Crowley said NewBridge on the Charles, with senior supportive housing, assisted living, long-term care, short-term acute care, and a K-8 school, will look more like a college campus for seniors than an institutional nursing home.
"Our goal is to create a neighborhood-style health care community," said Stark. "This won't be a traditional nursing home, and it won't have an institutional-type of feel. We want to change what people think getting older is all about."
"This is a project that we hope will define our organization," said Crowley.
The senior housing portion will feature a cluster of 50 cottage units on the western side of the campus. Two, 91-unit apartment buildings, and two, three-story-high villas with a combined 24 residential units will be built in the center of the campus, Crowley said.
The residential units will have underground access to the community center, which Stark said will be the "hub of the campus."
The community center will be a clubhouse for the campus, with its own fitness center, dining areas, swimming pool, bistro, chapel, synagogue, library, theatre, convenience store, and ice cream station.
Also adjacent to the community center will be a 51-bed assisted-living facility and a 40-bed memory support building for seniors suffering from dementia.
Even though the campus is more than two years from completion, seniors are already lining up to move in.
Despite only recently advertising the residences, HSL has received $500 deposits from more than 650 people interested in moving into the senior supportive housing units, which cost between $400,000 and $1.4 million each, said Stark.
