The project plans to house 70 seniors next November.
By
Daniel Greenman
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From Senator Ed Markey to select board chair Art Smadbeck, a mix of high-level politicians and local figures broke ground in Edgartown on the 70-bed, $68 million Navigator Homes elderly housing project intended to replace the Windemere Nursing & Rehabilitation Center on the Vineyard.
Under a white tent on a hot Monday afternoon, speakers congratulated project partners and underscored the value of senior housing on-Island.
The homes will provide housing on Island for the Vineyard’s senior population in five buildings of 14 residents each, as well as housing for workers.
On top of the 70 beds for seniors, 76 beds of workforce housing are planned for the project, a portion of which will be for Navigator Homes nurses.
The project will also include over a dozen acres of land conserved by the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.
Officials anticipate construction to wrap up by November of next year, and move residents in that same month.
Windemere, built in the 1990s, is now an outdated model that officials have said is no longer a sustainable option for elders on-Island.
Representatives attending Monday’s ceremony represented a significant portion of the Vineyard community, including the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Also in attendance were Rob Galibois II, Cape and Islands District Attorney; Bob Ogden, Dukes County Sheriff; and Thomas Moakley, State Representative candidate for the Cape and Islands.
Perhaps the most anticipated speaker on Monday was Senator Ed Markey, who retold his history with the project.
“In 2022 I was approached by Martha’s Vineyard — could I help, with the Department of Agriculture, to fund a new set of facilities, not only for skilled nursing, but also for the workers on the Island, so that they would have a place to live?” Markey said.
The Navigator Homes was loaned $53 million in USDA funds in January through the department’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant program.
Markey thanked Scott Soares, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Development state regional director.
“If people are looking at Martha’s Vineyard from Washington, D.C., they don’t see what Scott sees,” Markey said. “Scott sees for eight months a year a rural community. A community that is not rich. A community that is rural and needs assistance in order to deal with the problems that affect families on a daily basis all year round — not just June, July, and August of every single year.”
Markey also schooled the crowd about the history of Social Security, and caring for older Americans. “When Social Security was signed in 1935, life expectancy was only out to age 70 … I know one thing about seniors on Martha’s Vineyard. They intend on living a lot longer than age 70. A lot longer. In fact, they’re in the national lead in how long they want to age.”
David McDonough, president and CEO of Navigator Homes, also thanked the USDA for their loan, and highlighted the Vineyard’s rural character and needs. “Martha’s Vineyard is rural America,” McDonough said.
McDonough also recalled having trouble financing the project before the USDA’s involvement, noting that the project closed a $53 million loan at a 3.5 blended interest rate fixed for 35 years. “You cannot find that anywhere on the planet,” he said.
Speaking to The Times, Soares reflected on the qualities that made Navigator Homes a strong candidate for his department’s loan. “It was a combination of a community that really drove this and their persistence and ingenuity to bring this project here,” Soares said.
Susan Ryan, CEO of the Green House Project, also spoke about her nonprofit’s model for elder living, exemplified in the five buildings planned for the Navigator Homes’ residents.The Green Home model seeks to serve as an alternative to traditional nursing homes, providing open floor plans and private rooms for seniors.
“We’re not growing plants, we’re growing people,” Ryan said. “These are real homes. They’re not mini nursing homes.”
Denise Schepici, president of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, thanked project collaborators and shared her hopes for the project.
“Your partnership, collaboration, stewardship and stalwart leadership has ensured that Island seniors, and the hospital and nursing home staff who will care for them, will have a place they can truly call home,” she said.
Monday’s speeches culminated with the groundbreaking, as Markey, McDonough, Schepici and others took their spots at a row of shovels and moved the first mounds of Island earth for the future of Vineyard elderly housing.
Speaking after the groundbreaking, Sen. Markey was looking forward to seeing the homes inhabited.
“This is going to be a place that really helps families, and that cares for their loved ones in a way that is almost family-like,” Markey said.
