Friendship Village to Add Clubhouse to List of Amenities for Residents
November 21, 2019 | The Villager | Reading Time 3:00 Minutes
Friendship Village is excited to announce another expansion project! Coming Fall 2020, a beautiful, new Clubhouse will be added to our long list of amazing amenities our residents enjoy at Friendship Village.
November 20, 2019 marked the groundbreaking for the expansion with a speech from Betsy Bale, Executive Director.
Betsy opened the ceremony with these words:
“Good afternoon, I’m Betsy Bale, Executive Director. I would like to welcome you all today to the groundbreaking of our Village Clubhouse! It is an 
exciting time at Friendship Village and this clubhouse has been long-awaited by many including our residents who moved into Phase 1 of our Garden Home community.
Today marks the event of digging the hole for the Clubhouse!
The Friendship Village Board of Directors began discussions and planning for a Village Clubhouse in February 2007. After a downturn in the economy in 2008/2009, it was decided to put the Clubhouse on hold for the future.
In 2016, the Garden Home project was initiated with Phase 2. We are thrilled that we are currently 100% sold with the remaining of the 50 total Garden Homes to be completed in February 2020. This added 71 residents to our Friendship Village campus, and the needed space for events events and social gatherings.
The Clubhouse will feature a large event area, catering kitchen, as well as a Great Room concept kitchen in the event venue and lounge, a classroom, and an outdoor gathering space.
I’d like to welcome to join me now:
- John Bakos, President of Residential Construction with AVB Inc.
- Greg Dobson, Principal at AVB
- Scott Lanting, Project Manager at AVB
- Jeff Crites, Architect at Slocum Architects
- Molly Williams, Garden Home resident, and member of our Board Operations Committee
- Ken Greschak, Fund Development Director and project manager for this project
- Justin Horn, Assistant VP at Mercantile Bank, who we are partnering with on this project
- Andy McCleod, Board member and Chair of the Operations Committee
- Brandon Pierce, Director of Facility Services
I would also like to acknowledge Jon Rambow, Architect with Slocum Architects, who could not be here with us today and has been part of the Garden Home project since its inception.
So without further delay, let’s make this groundbreaking official!
The Village Clubhouse will be completed in the Fall of 2020. Watch for updates in our blog, Facebook and LinkedIn.