Wellbrooke of Wabash Officially Opens
Wellbrooke of Wabash Officially Opens
Posted: Saturday, March 2, 2013 4:00 am
By Joseph Slacian, jslacian@wabashplaindealer.com
Wellbrooke of Wabash, a $15 million state-of-the-art senior living campus, officially opened on Friday.
The facility, located at 20 John Kissinger Drive, had a ribbon cutting ceremony, tours and a luncheon for invited guests Friday morning, and an open house Friday afternoon for the public.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Zeke Turner, CEO of the Mainstreet Property Group, told the Plain Dealer following the ceremony. “This is a real nice moment. To get here and see the reality.”
Mainstreet Property Group partnered with Life Care Services to open the facility. Mainstreet constructed the building, located southeast of the intersection of U.S. 24 and Alber Street. Life Care is managing the operation.
Turner announced the project in August 2011. He said Friday that the finished product is even better than he had imagined.
“You set the bar high because of what you want to do for the community itself and the care for seniors,” he said. “So you set the bar high and you push really hard on it.
“Then when you see it in reality and it exceeds your expectations, you feel a real sense of contentment in that you did what you were supposed to do.”
Wellbrooke of Wabash will have residential apartments and private suites for those needing rehabilitative or long-term care.
It also has four dining rooms, including a formal dining room, a private dining room, a café style dining area and a coffee shop and pub. It also has an outdoor dining area that will have about 15 tables and can be used during warmer weather.
It will also offer a movie theater featuring a big-screen television, a beauty shop and spas, an outdoor patio area that has a putting green, a fire pit and a walking area to help with rehabilitation.
The facility opened in January and has 10 residents, according to General Manager Chris Newport.
“We’re just waiting on our state survey,” he said. “Hopefully the state survey comes in and they finalize the process, then we’ll be able to take Medicare Part A and private pay patients over on our rehabilitative care side.
“Until we get to that point we’re kind of in a holding pattern. We’re kind of at our max until we get the survey.”
Mayor Bob Vanlandingham praised both Mainstreet and Life Care Services in remarks he made prior to cutting the ribbon.
“I’ve been through this building about three times now,” he told the 100 or so people gathered for the event. “I can just say, ‘Wow.’ That’s about the way to look at it, wow.”
He recalled the first time he met with Mainstreet officials.
“Someone said, ‘We’re coming to Wabash because we want to come to a county where the city and the county and the people all work together,” Vanlandingham continued. “The other thing I remember, and I was told this several times, is ‘Mayor, when we do this, we want to do it right.’
“I don’t know how you could do anything with anymore class or style than you have here.”
Kim Pinkerton, Wabash County Chamber of Commerce president, said Main Street and Life Care Services immediately became active members of the community.
“They immediately came downtown in the heart of the population center and actually did become a part of the community,” she said. “They were out there making friends, not just acquaintances.
“They were involving themselves in other community organizations. They’re everywhere you look.”
Turner thanked the community for embracing the firms and the facility.
“We’re happy to be here,” he said. “This is something we’re doing across the country, to set the bar higher in care for seniors. We want to give them a much more dignified environment, a beautiful environment in which to be in.”
The Wabash facility is the first of the four Wellbrooke facilities to be open. Other sites include Westfield, scheduled to be open in May; Avon, scheduled to open in October, and Crawfordsville, scheduled to open in early 2014.
