Major construction is underway at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona. The $13-15 million project will include a new 16-bed memory care unit on the north edge of the campus as well as renovation of existing space of 50 individual rooms into 28 assisted living apartments and constructing a new commercial kitchen. In addition, a new stand alone Community/Friendship Center for independent living residents and a community meeting space will be built.

Director of Advancement for Pleasantview Home Larry Swartzendruber is excited for the project becoming reality, “We’ve been talking about adding a memory care wing literally for 20 to 30 years and we have finally come to the point where it is absolutely essential that we do that. So that’s been in the works for a long time. We did have, prior to the decision to include assisted living, we used to have what was called residential care facilities, so the form of assisted living, but wasn’t nearly the extent of what we are planning to do here.”

Swartzendruber shares how the memory care wing will improve their quality of care, “There just has been the need in the recent years, to address further the needs of those in the memory care sector. It just allows them to be in a wing where we can meet their needs a lot more efficiently and with a lot more programs than we can do when they’re perhaps scattered across other areas of campus.”

Pleasantview Home has been operating in Kalona since 1958. The project is scheduled to be a 22 to 24 month process.