Traverse City leaders got their first glimpse of the long-awaited new senior center that is finally ready to open its doors next week.
The new senior center replaces the old one that was torn down last year and has been decades in the making.
The center was finally completed because of a partnership between the city, county, local leaders, and the senior center friends, along with a boost from the state.
This is a space that people truly can use. There’s a lot of amenities here. There’s a commercial kitchen here. It’s going to be an amazing space for the whole community to use in a lot of different ways
Mayor Amy Shamroe said she was blown away by the sneak peek.
“It’s a bigger space. It’s a more central location, and there’s gonna be more space for people to spread out,” said Shamroe.
She said it was intentionally built with space for everything- with room to grow.
“In the old building, it was just kind of being built into it, or finding corners where you could do this, or finding a spot where you could do that. Now, instead of trying to kind of move here or move a little piece here or move another place there, I think it’s going to be much more coordinated,” said Shamroe.
Shamroe said it’s taken decades to complete because of money. A group called Senior Center Friends gave the project a jump start.
“Back in the 90s, a few people got together to form a friends group that started the conversation, started the process, and then the process has really just been kind of ebbing and flowing over the last few years,” said Shamroe.
Principal architect Ray Kendra with Environment Architect, out of Traverse City, led Friday’s tour. He said the most satisfying part of working on the project was working with the seniors in the design process.
Kendra said the project started gaining steam after a boost in funding from the state.
“We started off several years ago, got some of the design work happening, and then the project kind of sat, and then they received that $7 million appropriation, which all of a sudden really kick the project back into gear,” said Kendra.
The project was estimated to cost $5.6 million in 2020, but it ballooned since then, costing more than $10 million to complete.
For people like former mayor Jim Carruthers, who was around for the beginning planning stages, even chairing Senior Center Friends at one point, said it’s great to see the final results of years of efforts.
“We’re working with people that are in their late 90s, and they have been on this forever, and I’m just so happy that we were able to finish it, to get some of our leadership in the senior community to get their vision and their efforts really recognized. Because that’s what it’s all about. It’s about the seniors,” said Carruthers.