Village Shalom’s new independent living apartment community will transform the corner of 123rd Street and Nall. The new four-story building will be comprised of 76 independent living apartments, an underground resident parking garage and a “Main Street” amenity space with dining and entertainment venues. Construction is on track to begin in early 2018.

Village Shalom continues to move forward with its plans for a campus expansion and repositioning project that will nearly double the footprint of the south Overland Park retirement community. The plans include a four-story independent living apartment community, a new 48-residence free-standing memory care community, a repurposed short-term rehabilitation center with expanded therapy space, and a “Main Street” with dining and service amenities that will serve as the corridor from the new apartment community to the existing continuing-care campus. Construction is on-track to begin in early 2018, with completion set for the late summer of 2019.

“The extent of the work completed to this point has been done so behind-the-scenes, and we’ve made a number of exciting improvements to our initial plan – especially those dealing with the new memory care community,” said Village Shalom President and CEO, Matt Lewis.

The new memory care community will be constructed and staffed as a true Household Model. This model utilizes a multi-faceted approach to create an atmosphere of care that encompasses the comforts of home. The Household Model is widely considered to be today’s preeminent method of care for those experiencing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

The three-story memory care community will feature three 16-residence households, each with its own shared community living and amenity spaces. The building’s capacity remains unchanged from its original plans, but has moved from four to three households.

“This adjustment will ensure better functionality and operational efficiencies to improve resident quality of life and staff satisfaction,” said Lewis. “We’ve also reoriented the building to improve parking and increase greenspace.”

Village Shalom has also increased the independent living apartment community capacity from 60 to 76. This change was in response to the high consumer demand for independent living residences that share a connection to the resources of Village Shalom’s existing main campus. The community still intends to construct a 13-residence independent living building adjacent to its existing villa community in a later phase of expansion. Village Shalom has begun pre-sales for its new independent living apartments. The community has completed reservation contracts for over a third of the apartments and two of the six floor plans have sold out.

“We’ve had a great response in our initial pre-sale phase, and are expecting another strong wave when we release our interior design drawings later this summer,” said Village Shalom Director of Sales and Marketing, Jill Allin. “The apartments and dedicated independent living amenities are something we have been missing, and people are excited about the new active lifestyle this community will bring.”

The “Main Street” corridor adjacent to the new apartments will feature a number of high-end amenities including a full-service restaurant, bistro, pub, theater, and day spa. The building will also include an underground resident parking garage.

Village Shalom has closed on its pre-construction financing and the design phase of the project is nearly complete. The community plans to roll-out its interior design drawings in a number of public presentations set to take place in the next few months.

“We have an important responsibility to this community,” said Lewis. “We’re not only tasked with creating the preeminent senior living community of tomorrow, we must ensure that we minimize disruption to the residents who make Village Shalom their home today. We are confident that we have a plan that will do so, and we remain on-track to meet our construction timeline.”

Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2018. The expansion will roll out in several phases with a completion date in the late summer of 2019.

For more information on the Village Shalom expansion, visit their website.