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.
The main entrance and road to the campus on West Street, which will have its own traffic light, will be finished within the next year, said Crowley.
More than 1,700 trees will eventually be replanted around the campus.
The Planning Board last summer unanimously approved construction of the campus after reviewing the project for more than a year.
The Planning Board and HSL reached an agreement on an annual payment in lieu of taxes to the town of at least $650,000, and a one-time payment of $750,000 upon completion of the project. The annual payments to the town will be adjusted each year for inflation.
Besides the compensation package, HSL has agreed to a series of community benefits it estimated are worth more than $600,000 annually.
Those benefits include use of the two athletic fields, public access to walking trails to the Charles River, at least three health screening and two health education sessions a year, at least two paid internships to high school students, preferential housing for Dedham residents, and employment opportunities for residents.
The HSL project will also net the town about $1.5 million in building permit fees.
HSL has also agreed to hire a full-time project representative, an architect or structural engineer who would monitor the project and ensure it is built as specified in the order of conditions, and take various measures to ease traffic impact on the neighborhood.
Daily News staff writer Ryan Halliday can be reached at 781-433-8336, or by e-mail at rhallida@cnc.com
