St.Clair College construction

by Natasha Wigle

The new Schlegel Village and HealthPlex that has been under construction since August at St. Clair College is expected to be complete within the first quarter of 2014.

Schlegel Village is a new senior’s long-term care facility that will have an active dementia home area, behavioral management and an advanced physical home area.

President of St. Clair College John Strasser said he believes the facility will be a huge benefit to Windsor.

“The advantage for us is that we will be able to do placements, the value for us is in the placements and long term jobs, they’re expecting to employ around 400 people,” Strasser said.

The HealthPlex will be open to all students enrolled at St. Clair College and will be home to the basketball, volleyball and badminton teams. It includes 12 team rooms, a running track, a triple gym and 10,000 square foot fitness area with two studio rooms for aerobics and spinning classes.

The HealthPlex is a $23 million add-on that has been paid for partially by the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities, student tuition and fundraising.

“There’s the opportunity for different partnerships, obviously for students it’s fantastic because they will have a state-of-the-art facility for working out and intermediate events,” said Christina Gatto, director of athletics and recreation at St. Clair College.

As for any future projects going on, there are a few in the works.

“Their intent is to put up a six-to-10 story building that will be hooked into the long term care facility to live if you are a senior,” said Strasser.

“They’re also reconfiguring our athletic fields,” Gatto said. “We lost a baseball diamond because of the land that was needed for Schlegel, so that’s new and exciting”.