In the span of less than a decade, a senior living community in Franklin will have invested nearly $70 million in new apartments, a community center, health center and its main building.
Just since 2015, Compass Park, formerly the Indiana Masonic Home, has built a community center that has a pool, fitness center, restaurant and events venue, and upgraded the retirement center’s main building, a project that is set to wrap up in the next several weeks.
Next on the agenda is the most ambitious of the four projects: a $35 million health center.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe two-story, 125,000-square-foot facility will consolidate the nursing and rehabilitation services offered in a scattered collection of buildings elsewhere on the campus, which is southeast of downtown Franklin off of State Street. The campus houses nearly 350 residents in an assisted living center, apartments and homes and employs about 250 people.
The improvements come on the heels of the facility’s 100th anniversary. The retirement center and then orphanage opened its first building in 1916.
The new health center will be a modern, state-of-the-art facility intended to consolidate services already offered on the campus and to continue to meet the needs of residents as the retirement community grows, Compass Park Director Mike Spencer said.
“We are getting ready for the next generation of retirees,” he said.
Spencer described the inpatient facility as modern with a therapy gym, private rooms with baths and showers for patients and as having the ability to care for an increased number of patients as the retirement center continues to grow.
More residents are expected in the next decade. Three more apartment complexes, with a total of 75 units, are planned to be built once the health center opens. Those buildings, which will cost about $12 million, will be built northwest of the community center along the grass plaza in the middle of the campus.
Following suit with the remainder of the campus, the new buildings will be constructed in the colonial style, complete with brick walls and white columns. Construction on the health center is set to begin in May and be complete in August 2018, Spencer said.
The health center will be built adjacent to the assisted living facility. Walkways on the first and second floor will allow residents direct entry to the building, he said.
The therapy room will have an automobile simulator to allow patients rehabilitating from surgeries or injuries to practice getting in and out of a vehicle, one of the main challenges people face when recovering at that age, Spencer said.
The health center will have a restaurant open 24 hours a day for both residents and staff, Spencer said.
The projects underway at the retirement facility showcase its commitment to the community, the future of health care and the next generation of retirees, he said.
The health center will also have four hospice rooms, whose designs were influenced by Spencer’s experience when his mother went through hospice care less than two years ago.
She wanted one last opportunity to be outside and see the sun and rain, but she was bedridden and the facility she was in didn’t offer that access.
These four hospice rooms will have secluded, fenced-in patios with gardens where patient’s beds can be rolled outside in any type of weather, Spencer said.
The facility will also have indoor walkways connecting it to both the assisted living complex as well as the administrative building, community center and future apartment complexes. Once the health center and apartment projects are complete, a resident living in one of the apartments would be able to walk indoors all the way to the health center and assisted living facility.
A resident living at one of the new apartment complexes would be able to get to the health center without every stepping foot outside in the winter or during inclement weather.
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Compass Park, formerly the Indiana Masonic Home, plans to invest nearly $70 million total in new buildings, renovations and recently completed projects at its campus.
Here is a look at the completed and proposed projects.
Community center: An $8 million facility complete with a pool, fitness center, restaurant and events venue; opened in 2015.
Administrative building: A $12 million overhaul of a 100-year-old building to renovate apartments, update electrical wiring, build new bathrooms and update carpeting, trim and paint. Work is still underway.
Health center: A $35 million project which will modernize and consolidate the facility’s nursing and rehabilitation services into one building that is connected to the assisted living center. It is set to open in the fall of 2018.
Apartments: Three 25-unit apartment complexes are planned as part of a $12 million project. Work on the first apartment complex is planned to begin after the health center has opened.
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