As the large white beam covered with autographs of those in attendance was lowered to complete the steel frame at the new Senior Pavillion at Jamaica Hospital, Medical Center applause went up from the crowd, and some seniors had to fight back tears of excitement as their new facility moved closer to opening.
“That was such a prestigious honor to sign it,” Senior Center Council’s President Kathleen Lewis said fighting back tears. “That was something I’ve never done before.”
Signing of the final steel piece is part of construction tradition, said Greg Bradley, vice president of Trump Pavilion for Nursing and Rehabilitation. The signing was part of a “topping-off” ceremony held on Wednesday, October 17 to celebrate the completion of the steel frame of the new rehab center for seniors.
Bradley said the lifting of the final piece of steel symbolizes the midpoint of the construction process. He said he is happy to be on the down swing of the construction process, but there is still a lot of work to do.
The new Jamaica Nursing home is slated to open in the spring of 2009. The current senior rehab center was built in 1975.Bradley said it would be the newest nursing home in Queens for at least the next decade. It will feature 226 beds throughout the building. Each room will have two beds, but feel like a single room, because the beds will not be parallel, but be on opposite walls, Bradley said. The new complex will also feature a four-story atrium, long and short term care, and 24-hour nursing services for the residents.
“We are here for them,” Bradley said. “It is going to be magnificent.”
Bradley said many in the current senior center are excited for the new center to open.
Lewis added the residents “can’t stop talking about it.”
She jokingly admitted that her boxes are already packed and she cannot wait to move across the street to the new home.
