Belmont Village Senior Living Reaches Construction Milestone in Albany

Belmont Village Senior Living reached a construction milestone with the “topping out” of its twenty-sixth community located at 1100 San Pablo Avenue in Albany. Contractor W.E. O’Neil completed the concrete structure of the four-story building in late August with the final roof placement. The milestone was celebrated with an on-site barbeque for subcontractors and special guests. The project is scheduled to open in fall of 2017 and will provide 175 units of Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care for area residents. Belmont Village Founder and CEO Patricia Will and W.E. O’Neil President John Finn both spoke at the event about the processes and relationships that have brought the project to this point.

“W.E. O’Neil has been the general contractor on several of our California properties and we have great trust in our partnership,” said Will. “We believe in building at the highest level of quality for our future residents, and W.E. O’Neil accomplishes that.”

Finn thanked the many building subcontractors in attendance for bringing the project to this point without any construction delays. “It’s about our relationships, Building Great Relationships, and that’s one of the things we pride ourselves on.” said Finn. “I’m just one member of the team, to the guys and gals, to all the people contributing to this project, getting it done, I just want to say thank you.”

The event was attended by Belmont Village and W.E. O’Neil employees, subcontractors, principals from HKIT Architects, who designed the building, and project engineers from KPFF. Special guests included representatives from the UC Berkeley Real Estate office, University Village, the UC Berkeley Retirement Center and the Retiree Planning Committee.

Belmont Village Albany is a part of a mixed use development project on land owned by University of California, Berkeley. Belmont Village entered into a ground lease with the University and has an affiliation agreement with the UC Berkeley Retirement Center. As a part of the City of Albany’s planning and development process, Belmont Village will be including several design elements to create enhancements that will serve the surrounding community, such as expanded walk and bike paths to offer public access to local retail and amenities, expansive landscaping and public art specially commissioned for the project.

Belmont Village is following Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria to achieve LEED Gold certification on the project. The LEED rating system was created by the United States Green Building Council, to evaluate and encourage environmental performance and sustainable design.

“We plan to serve the elder residents of the City of Albany, and we’ll play an active role in our new city,” said Will. “We also want to thank the UC Berkeley Real Estate Department for their leadership in a nationwide trend in university-based senior housing, thus allowing university retirees and emeriti to remain close and connected to their alma mater.”

Belmont Village is the owner and operator of Belmont Village Albany. UC Berkeley and the Retirement Center are not financially or legally involved in the community and have no responsibility or liability for its operation. For information about Belmont Village Albany, please call 510-525-4554 or visit www.belmontvillage.com

(l-r) W.E. O’Neil President John Finn and Belmont Village CEO Patricia Will talk about Belmont Village Senior Living Albany, scheduled to open fall 2017, while construction workers sign the project banner at the recent topping-out ceremony for the building. Photo by Scott Wall.