By Kathianne Boniello
An upcoming construction project at Bayside’s Ozanam Hall Nursing Home will be the first major renovation of the 12-story building in 30 years and is set to be the subject of an informational Community Board 11 hearing next month.
CB 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece said the public hearing, scheduled be held during the board’s monthly meeting Nov. 4, was arranged to inform the community about the work expected for Ozanam Hall.
A part of the roughly $20 million construction project was expected to begin by the end of this year, Ozanam Hall administrative Sister Philip Ann said in a written statement Tuesday. The administrator said the nursing home was planning to hold a fund-raising campaign to support the project.
The renovation will include the reconfiguration of each floor of the nursing home to provide more open space and make it easier for residents to have access to facilities, according to the statement provided by Ozanam Hall.
Ozanam Hall, at 42-41 201st St., is a 432-bed nursing home run by the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, who first opened the facility in 1971. The project will actually reduce the number of beds at Ozanam Hall to 416, the statement said.
Plans filed with Community Board 11 indicated the construction would add about 4,700 square feet to the building, according to Iannece, who said they showed the space would be used for dining and laundry facilities.
Ozanam Hall said the construction project would include a second service elevator in the building as well as dining, recreational, bathing and laundry areas on each floor of the building as opposed to in a centralized location.
“The home has never undergone a substantive renovation in the past,” the nursing home said in its statement. “Although still viable as a structure in which a high level of nursing care is delivered, from a physical perspective the home certainly is showing its age and is in need of a general reconditioning.”
Motivation for the planned construction comes from the changing needs of the residents, according to the statement.
“The typical resident is sicker, more enfeebled and presents more physical and, in many cases, more psychological deficits,” the nursing home said. “Residents use significantly more … wheelchairs, thus travel to any place in the building is naturally slower.”
As patients become sicker, Ozanam Hall said, laundry facilities are used more as well, creating a greater need for timely washing of linens.
“The population that Ozanam Hall now cares for are sicker and frailer,” the nursing home said. “The proposed renovation will have a positive impact on the lives of all who live, work and visit at the home.”
Iannece said the construction was not expected to take up additional property in the neighborhood.
“My understanding is they are building on their own property,” said Iannece. He added that there had been rumors in the community that the nursing home was looking to buy other properties nearby its existing facility on which to build, but Iannece said he had no information to that effect.
The public hearing was scheduled at the request of the city Planning Department, said Iannece, so the city could gauge community reaction to the construction.
CB 11 covers the communities of Bayside, Little Neck, Douglaston, Oakland Gardens, Hollis Hills and Auburndale.
The board, which is based in Little Neck, was to hold its monthly meeting at MS 158 at 46-35 Oceania St. in Bayside at 8 p.m.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
