Cornwall Manor officially broke ground Wednesday, June 19, on its newest project: The Clubhouse at The Woods.
The Woods campus is connected to Cornwall Manor’s original Buckingham campus via the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail. The approximately 120 houses there have been served to date with a small community center, the Treehouse, located in one of those houses.
Once complete, the new Clubhouse building will be open to all Cornwall Manor residents, with parking spaces (including some for golf carts) and shuttle service from the Buckingham campus providing access. So, for example, a resident who lives on the Buckingham campus could come to the Clubhouse dining room for a meal.
The 24,000-square-foot, two-level clubhouse will feature multiple dining options (a casual cafe and separate dining area, along with an al fresco option on the deck), the retirement community’s largest gym space to date, and other amenities such as a golf simulator, theatre, and physical therapy/massage rooms. A multi-purpose room, equipped with a stage, will provide additional flexibility for events, anything from holiday dinners to ballroom dances to other programming.
The back of the building will overlook a pond, made from an existing retaining basin that will be cleaned up and feature an expanded walking path.
Many of the amenities cater towards health and wellness, which Cornwall Manor leadership says are very important for the residents – both those that are there already and those that are coming in the future.
“Health and wellness have become such a big factor in the entire building,” said Jennifer Margut, vice president of marketing and public relations for Cornwall Manor. “Residents are living longer. They’re active, very active, and they want to be healthy and stay healthy.”
The clubhouse is close to Trailside Organic Farm, a collaboration begun in 2021 between Cornwall Manor and Kutztown’s Rodale Institute, a leader in regenerative organic agriculture. A new bank barn was opened up at the two-acre organic farm last fall.
Read More: Cornwall Manor collaboration with Rodale Institute blooms newest local bank barn
“Having this organic farm has been a wonderful plus for us,” said Margut. “Everything raised goes into our dining rooms and then we have the farmer’s market.”
Cornwall Manor’s physical, occupational, and speech therapy department will use the Clubhouse as a third location to offer services, including HydroWorx aquatic therapy – a kind of hydrotherapy treadmill. In addition to the fitness, therapy, and recreational spaces, the downstairs will also feature a club room, similar to what the Buckingham campus has, with a bar, pool table, and lounge seating.
The building is designed to be a flexible space that evolves with resident taste and needs.
The project is expected to cost about $13 million, part of an overall financing package secured a couple years ago that has seen renovation of the retirement community’s Laurel Place apartments, adding balconies wherever possible and replacing HVAC units, and will eventually include the addition of a $14 million to $15 million apartment building to accompany the Clubhouse.
Read More: Cornwall Manor plans new clubhouse and apartment building for The Woods
Cornwall Manor expects construction of the Clubhouse to take about a year, with the hope that by the holidays next year, residents are in the building and enjoying the facilities.
“We’re just excited to get it started,” said Margut. “Our residents are excited to use it.”
Construction is being handled by Pyramid Construction, which Margut says has been a very good firm for Cornwall Manor to work with.
“We’ve had a great relationship so far in planning this,” she said.
The Clubhouse and planned apartment building were designed by Cornerstone Design Architects of Lancaster, which is also consulting on the interior design in conjunction with Cornwall Manor’s in-house team. Development plans for the project were approved by Cornwall Borough council in June 2023.
No date has been set for when construction of the first apartment building at The Woods might begin. Margut said the Clubhouse was the top priority, and after years of planning it was very important for Cornwall Manor to get the building open for residents. Plans for the apartments will hopefully be finalized by the end of the year, she said.
Arthur Funk & Sons Inc. will build the apartment building, which is expected to contain 27 units. Each apartment will have a private outside space of either a balcony or patio along with a parking space in the underground garage.
Although the apartment building was included in the original land development plan, along with several other planned future buildings, Margut said Cornwall Manor has made several revisions to the plans for the first apartment building, such as adjusting its location to allow for the addition of a parking lot in addition to the planned underground parking.
Margut said Cornwall Manor residents were very excited to learn that construction on the Clubhouse was beginning this month.
“We’ve been talking about it for years knowing we wanted to do it,” said Margut. “Well, it’s now come to fruition. So the residents were just ecstatic knowing that we were starting.”
“We told them it was going to be about a year, and that year is going to be here before you know it.”
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