Bethany Homes breaks ground on $28 million project | Local

Bethany Lutheran Homes broke ground Monday on its largest undertaking — a $28 million senior housing project in South La Crosse that will include hospice suites as well as regular apartments.

Eagle Crest South, modeled after Bethany’s Eagle Crest North in Onalaska, will feature a Town Center with dining rooms, a café/bistro, a chapel, an auditorium, a health and wellness center, a convenience store, a movie theater, a botanical garden and heated underground parking, said Bethany CEO Todd Wilson.

“Town Center will be the hub of community life,” Wilson said in an interview after the dedication and groundbreaking. “The longest walk to Town Center will be 150 feet.”

The four-story, 212,660-square-foot facility at 622 Bennora Lee Court will have 144 apartments, including 12 hospice units called Serenity Home with 24-hour end-of-life nursing care.

Wilson likened the facility to a fine hotel, fostering social and recreational activities for its residents.

Eagle Crest North, which was built at a cost of $22 million and opened in December 2007, has 130 senior living units., Wilson said.

Serenity Home is an additional service unavailable at Eagle Crest North.

The hospice will help fulfill Mary Brickl’s dream after being frustrated that she could not obtain such care for her husband, Onalaska businessman Karl Brickl, as he neared death in 2011 after his five-year battle with cancer, she said.

“Had this been available, it would have been — I won’t say a wonderful experience — so much more of a peaceful experience and less traumatic,” Brickl said during a dedication ceremony before the groundbreaking.

“This will be much more of a home environment than a medical facility environment,” she said.

Brickl, who presented Bethany with an oversized check for $35,000 raised through Karl J. Hospice Inc. to create a hospice, said she joined with Bethany to make it part of Eagle Crest South.

“It made more sense to combine forces,” she said.

Wilson said, “Mary’s story was the inspiration for us to add Serenity Home.”

The building, overlooking Swift Creek on the west side of Gundersen Health System’s La Crosse campus, will have 144 apartments. Ranging in size from 731 to 1,700 square feet, the units will include 80 independent living apartments, 34 assisted living units and 18 memory care apartments, Wilson said.

Costs will range from $1,200 a month for an independent living apartment to $4,500 for someone needing a large amount of nursing care, said marketing director Lori Hoesley.

Eagle Crest South, which Wilson said will provide 60 new jobs when it opens in May 2015, is being built on 6.5 acres Bethany is leasing from Gundersen. Bethany is affiliated with Gundersen and the La Crosse Area Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The project pushes Bethany Lutheran’s tally of senior housing construction during the past seven years to more than $50 million, Wilson said.

With 12 locations offering skilled nursing, senior housing, assisted living and memory care services in La Crosse, Onalaska and Holmen, Bethany Lutheran says it is the largest provider of senior health care services in western Wisconsin.