HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Mass. celebrates opening at Ludlow Mills - Developed by Westmass

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Mass. recently celebrated its grand opening at the Ludlow Mills with the community, HealthSouth officials, and hospital employees and patients. Speakers at the grand opening ceremony included Jay Grinney, president and CEO of the HealthSouth Corp.; Victoria Healy, CEO of HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Mass.; state senator Gale Candaras; Cathy O'Connor, director of the Department of Public Health, office of healthy communities; a former HealthSouth patient and Kenn Delude, president and CEO of the Westmass Area Development Corp. The new $28.5 million hospital consists of 53 beds and offers all private rooms. It provides a higher level of rehabilitative care to patients who are recovering from stroke and other neurological disorders, brain and spinal cord injury, amputations, and orthopedic, cardiac and pulmonary conditions. At 74,500 s/f, the new HealthSouth hospital efficiently reused over 100,000 bricks and planed wooden beams from old mill buildings. The new facility is a key part of the ongoing Ludlow Mills Preservation and Redevelopment project, which is being developed by the Westmass Area Development Corp. (Westmass). Delude said, "This is one of the cornerstones of the preservation and redevelopment of the Ludlow Mills. During its development period, the Ludlow Mills will become one of the largest mixed-use developments in Western Mass. Westmass is thrilled that HealthSouth is open and serving the rehabilitative needs of Western Mass. residents at its new Ludlow Mills location." The new HealthSouth is a LEED Silver Certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) hospital, which signifies that the new structure meets and exceeds established "green building" criteria. The hospital overlooks a beautiful and scenic portion of the Chicopee River to its south where Westmass will construct a "riverwalk" later this year to link the community to the river. Westmass' Ludlow Mills project includes sites available for sale for the construction of new buildings ranging between 10,000 and 150,000 s/f or more. In addition, through its preservation efforts, Westmass offers for sale or lease and adaptive reuse, beautiful historic buildings along the 1.5 miles of river frontage. Westmass is currently seeking experienced mixed-use developers for the preservation and adaptive reuse of the project's three-story,130,000 s/f, Clocktower building, another "cornerstone" building and opportunity. Project incentives at the Ludlow Mills include Westmass' management and coordination of local permits, access to a skilled and available workforce, low real estate taxes, federal and state historic tax credits and qualifying projects will find the Ludlow Mills project new market tax credit eligible. According to Westmass, the second cornerstone of the Ludlow Mills project will be a 103,000 s/f, senior independent residential preservation project to be developed by WinnDevelopment of Boston. This important residential project is expected to start in the 4th quarter of this year. Westmass is a private not-for-profit development corporation that has successfully developed large-scale complex projects in the region for over 50 years and is responsible for the preservation and redevelopment of the Ludlow Mills. Westmass is a founding affiliate of the EDC of Western Mass.