Hathorne Hill Rehabilitation and Care Center: All About Healing

There must be something inherently healing about the town of Danvers, Mass. In 1874 Danvers offered the pastoral setting favored by prominent Kirkbride-plan hospitals, which were designed with the idea that a building itself could have curative properties. The Kirkbridian Danvers State Hospital opened to the public in 1878, staying in operation until 1992. Little remains of that hospital, but a new era of health care has begun for Danvers in 2012 with the opening of Hathorne Hill Rehabilitation and Care Center (HHRCC).

The 120-bed skilled nursing and short-term rehabilitation center was named after the hill where Danvers State Hospital once stood. College Street Partners based out of nearby Beverly, Mass., developed the project, which provides development and advisor services exclusively for health care properties.

HHRCC will be occupied by SunBridge Healthcare (SunBridge), which operates 199 locations across the country that specialize in short-term rehabilitation and skilled nursing services. Though HHRCC does not offer the ornateness of Victorian-era Kirkbride hospitals, College Street Partners tapped JSA Inc. (JSA) to design a facility that similarly incorporated a person’s well-being into its design. JSA operates from offices in Portsmouth, N.H., and Jacksonville, Fla., and boasts an impressive portfolio. National institutions like the American Institute of Architects and the Assisted Living Federation of America have even recognized JSA’s work, adding to the proof that JSA was a perfect partner for the HHRCC venture.

A Neighborhood Feel

In the case of HHRCC, JSA delivered a design that would facilitate state-of-the-art care for 80 short-term rehabilitation patients and 40 long-term care patients. The 120 beds are split into three distinct neighborhoods of 40 units located throughout the 72,000-square foot center to enable SunBridge professionals to provide highly personalized care to patients recovering from trauma, orthopedic surgery and neurological conditions, among other ailments.

Additionally, JSA worked closely with SunBridge to ensure HHRCC reflected SunBridge’s ongoing efforts to offer home-style amenities and features at all of its locations. Dividing the center into three sections provides the development with a more intimate and less clinical feel, as the neighborhoods are connected by plenty of outdoor spaces and lushly landscaped courtyards. JSA forewent a central dining space in favor of several, more intimate dining rooms offering a personalized model of care that embraces a shift in health care culture.

Of course, striking the balance between home and health on paper is different than actually constructing it. This is why College Street Partners selected Nauset Construction Corporation (Nauset) to oversee the project as construction manager. Nauset maintains a head office in Needham, Mass., and although the company was only founded in 2004, it quickly attracted the attention of high-profile developers. Nauset has completed projects ranging from the Army National Guard’s $20 million Joint Force Headquarters office building project at Hanscom Field Air Force Base to overseeing the ground-up Kennedy Day School addition at Boston’s Franciscan Hospital for Children.

Nauset hit the ground running with the help of a highly experienced team and a corporate culture built upon the personal belief of Anthony Papantonis, founder and president of Nauset. Papantonis established Nauset on expecting a glowing review from each client being a project’s ultimate indicator of success.

In order for the team to achieve such success, Nauset doesn’t cut corners. The team tackles projects with complex logistics, tight sites and compressed schedules by hiring experienced, highly skilled professionals from a range of professional construction management backgrounds, giving every project a multidisciplinary perspective for innovative, efficient problem-solving.

Ready for Anything

So when project challenges occurred on site at the new HHRCC when crews broke ground in November 2011, the Nauset team was ready and swift in making adjustments to keep the project on track for a winter 2012 opening. “This really is a project like no other in the area and honestly, it’s gone very smoothly,” admits Jon Teixeira, project manager for Nauset. Any remnants of the grandiose Danvers State Hospital had long since been removed from the site, with the exception of an underground tunnel carrying utilities to more than a few of the adjacent properties.

With cooler temperatures already on the way, Nauset coordinated with the project’s subcontractors to reroute the utilities without disrupting service to the adjacent properties. Also, the team had to be sure to move crews quickly enough to ensure construction progressed through the coldest winter months. “We wound up filling the tunnel in and capping it on either end after we rerouted the utilities and, thankfully, that winter was cold without bringing a lot of snow,” adds Teixeira.

Construction continued without any major disruptions through November 2012, at which point Nauset began coordinating with SunBridge to ensure the facility could open in December. According to Teixeira, an on-time opening date involved coordinating the delivery, installation and inspection of much of the facility’s operating infrastructure, including laundry equipment, and kitchen equipment.

Hathorne Hill Rehabilitation and Care Center adds another brick of success in Nauset Construction Corporation’s history of using experience and strong communication skills to deliver landmark projects that leave a lasting positive impression on the client and the community.