New $269M VA Skilled Nursing Facility Reimaging the Typical LTC Model

The California Department of General Services (DGS) has begun preconstruction on an ambitious $269-million skilled nursing and memory care center in Napa Valley, a project eight years in the making.

DGS’s client, the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), plans to combine the new 240-bed SNF with three existing facilities on the 615-acre campus.

This is an upgrade to the state’s oldest and largest veterans’ home — the original VHC-Yountville center was founded in 1884. It’s also the largest such facility in the U.S., currently providing long-term care to about 1,000 aged and disabled veterans.

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Once the 318,000-square-foot facility opens in December 2023, it will replace 231 beds; that includes 156 beds in the center’s Holderman building and 75 memory care beds in its Roosevelt building. That means nine new beds will be added to the campus overall.

“Based on federal design standards for new veterans’ homes, and consistent with the design for the recently constructed Redding and Fresno homes, the new facility will be constructed in 30 resident-living units or ‘neighborhoods,’” a DGS spokesperson told Skilled Nursing News. “The new facility will take direct advantage of the changing nature of long-term care, emphasizing a non-institutional character in both physical plant and operations.”

That includes single-occupancy bedrooms with en suite bathrooms for residents and “improved dining options,” DGS said. The Holderman building, originally built in 1932 as a hospital, is currently being used for long-term care residents at double-occupancy. The rooms are smaller in size compared to single-occupancy VA rooms in Fresno and Redding, Calif.

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Tutor Perini Corp. (NYSE: TPC) subsidiary Rudolph & Sletten in May was awarded the design-build contract for the pricey Napa Valley build in Yountville, Calif.

Rudolph and Sletten will partner with CannonDesign for the project.

“Continuing with the project is critical to address significant facility challenges and maintain the state’s commitment to veteran care at the Yountville Home,” the DGS spokesperson said.

The build comes after a study and assessment was approved by the state legislature for the 2015-2016 fiscal year and funding for performance criteria followed the assessment in 2018, 2019, DGS said.

Once the facility is completed in 2023, it will match existing buildings in architectural style, Rudolph and Slettten said. Additionally, it will house central health services offices; physical therapy and occupational therapy; member services; main and satellite kitchens; dining rooms; exam rooms; nurses’ stations; a pharmacy; laundry facilities; resident outdoor spaces; parking; roadways and other infrastructure improvements.

The project will be designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold standards.

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