State and local officials tour new Danvers rehab facility

Photo: Sunbridge Healthcare

Left to right, Danvers Selectman Bill Clark, State Representative Ted Speliotis, Christine Baldini, administrator for Hathorne Hill, and Mark LaRoche, regional vice president for Massachusetts, SunBridge Healthcare at Wednesday's construction tour of Hathorne Hill. The new $14 million facility will provide sophisticated rehabilitation care aimed at aiding recovery and helping patients return home.

By Ryan Mooney, Globe Correspondent

State representative Ted Speliotis was in Danvers on Wednesday with approximately 50 health care executives and local officials for a hard hat tour of Hathorne Hill, a new $14 million rehabilitation center across the street from Beverly Hospital on Kirkbride Drive.

The 72,000-square foot facility is designed to offer an innovative approach to rehabilitation for patients who may be recovering from orthopedic or reconstructive surgery, trauma or a neurological condition.

The spacious new building will offer its 120 residents small "neighborhoods" with home-like features - such as courtyards, fireplaces, small dining areas, and garden views - rather than long corridors and large central nursing stations, as well as therapeutic spa treatments and a meditation room.

Now entering its final stage of construction under Nauset Construction Corporation, Hathorne Hill - the first new rehabilitation center to be constructed from the ground up in Danvers in the last 20 years - will replace an older skilled nursing center that has operated in town since 1965, Cedar Glen Care and Rehabilitation, whose residents will be transferred to Hathorne Hill.

The new facility, pictured below, is scheduled to open in late fall or early winter.