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The faith-based nonprofit started on the $77 million first phase in October 2015. It involves adding three new facilities totaling about 300,000 square feet.

The first phase could add about 160 new residents to the 80-acre campus, which currently serves 700 residents.

“We have dust, dirt and activity happening in three main areas of our campus,” said Curt Stutzman, president and CEO of Messiah Lifeways. “It’s a very busy time but very enjoyable.”

The largest component of the first phase project is Village Square, which will add 84 apartments ranging in size from 800-square-foot one-bedroom units to two-bedroom units with 1,700 square feet. Village Square also includes wellness and enrichment centers, a new campus day spa, welcome center and two new dining options.

The new options include a casual cafe-style restaurant with 120 seats and a more upscale farm-to-table restaurant with seating for about 80 people.

Kristen Heisey, a spokesperson for Messiah Lifeways, said 55 of the 84 apartments already are reserved. Residents can choose from 11 different floor plans, and many of the early reservations offered the ability to fully customize units.

The goal is to reserve the rest by the time construction winds down in a few months, Heisey said.

To erect Village Square, 16 cottages were demolished. The new facility also will have underground parking, a first for the campus, to save on space.

A personal care apartment building called Hopewell will add 26 apartments that range in size from 600 to 768 square feet. That project, still part of the first phase, also will include outdoor spaces and a dining room, plus easy access to Village Square via a connecting bridge.

The third piece of this initial phase includes adding 32 private nursing rooms through Messiah’s new Engle and Greenwood buildings, while 32 existing semi-private nursing rooms on campus are converted to private units.

The long-range plan at Messiah Village is known as Project Envision. The plan was in development for about five years before construction started.

The end result is expected to produce facilities that each have their own distinct look from others on campus. Officials said they didn’t want an institutional or cookie-cutter feel to the campus, which was first developed in the late 1970s.

About 150 construction workers are on site daily working to complete the first phase, said Greg Witters, senior director of strategic projects.

Whiting-Turner out of Baltimore is overseeing construction at the site. Local partners include RGS Associates of Lancaster, which served as landscape architect, and Eastern PCM in Lemoyne, which is serving as the owner’s representative, essentially as a liaison between the designers and builder.

View more renderings of the expansion in the slideshow below.

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