Homewood at Williamsport’ s New Woodlands Luxury Apartments Cap Campus-Wide Renovation Projects.
BUSINESS
At Homewood’ s Woodlands Luxury Apartments( top), with amenities including a game room( above), hair salon, fitness center and more, new residents like Paul Usary( left) are enjoying spacious apartments with plentiful natural light.
A Home at the Woodlands
Homewood at Williamsport’ s New Woodlands Luxury Apartments Cap Campus-Wide Renovation Projects.
by Stacey Campbell + photos by Chris Jackson
Homewood at Williamsport has been providing quality care and a community environment for seniors since 1932. The campus’ main buildings have always been recognizable from U. S. 11, and while residents and regular passersby have witnessed a gradual transformation, someone who hadn’ t visited Homewood in the last few years might not recognize it.“ Over the last six years, we actually rebuilt and renovated the whole campus,” says Homewood Retirement Centers Vice President of Operations Conrad Peachey. In November 2012, Homewood completed renovations to the former nursing home building and welcomed residents to The Woodlands Luxury Apartments— the final project in a multi-year plan.
Campus improvements began with a new, state-of-the-art 82-bed healthcare facility, completed in 2009, with a homelike atmosphere and specialized unit for residents with Alzheimer’ s Disease and dementia. The building utilizes a neighborhood concept, creating groups of residents who have meals and activities within their neighborhoods. The first-floor secured dementia unit accommodates the wandering tendencies of those residents, including a secure outdoor courtyard. The next project was the community center, which services the whole campus.“ We expanded just about everything: the dining room, the medical suites, fitness center,” Conrad says.“ And then we built a
new chapel in the courtyard area, and that was to help serve the whole community.” Renovations to the assisted living apartments and cottages— updating kitchens and baths, installing new flooring and more— were ongoing throughout this time.
The last piece of the plan involved transforming the 1950s-era nursing home building into 35 independent-living apartments. The new Woodlands apartments, which average 1,000 square feet, are available in one bedroom, one bedroom with den, and two-bedroom / two-bathroom floor plans. Chambersburg, Pa.-based Brechbill & Helman Construction Company served as general contractor for the project, having earned the trust of Homewood for their previous quality work on the nursing facility construction and community center renovations. Homewood created the Woodlands out of a need for bigger apartments on campus.“ Some of the newer,‘ younger’ residents coming in [ residents’ average age is 80 ] want more space, a more open concept, and we didn’ t have that to offer,” says Homewood’ s Executive Director Rich Lenehan.“ So
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