CenterPointe opens ‘amazing’ new wellness campus
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – CenterPointe celebrated a milestone in the fight against mental health and substance use disorders on Thursday with the opening of the CenterPointe Campus for Health and Wellbeing.
The state-of-the-art facility, near 11th and South Streets, will help the nonprofit further its mission.
Chief Operating Officer Tami Lewis-Ahrendt said the project has been several years in the making.
“We bought the building several years ago from the county, and starting in 2021, we broke ground and started building the facility,” she said. “And here we are in 2023. It’s finally ready to open, and we are super excited.”
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The campus used to be a dormitory for nurses at St. Elizabeth Hospital and was most recently office space for Lancaster County.
Many of the services CenterPointe offered at its now-closed location off E Street have been relocated to the new facility.
Plus, there are some exciting new additions, such as a kitchen, pharmacy, amphitheater, a community garden and the CenterPlace apartments for low-income residents.
“What it also does is allow us to add additional housing component to that whole health care that we’re providing,” Lewis-Ahrendt said. “CenterPointe provides about 280 units of supportive housing in the community every night; this just grew our expanse of services by adding those 16 apartments to what we do right here in this building.”
SEE ALSO: Historical time capsule found at CenterPointe construction site
President Topher Hansen said the facility is “an amazing building” with “an amazing future.”
And he said the community response has been incredible since the project’s inception.
“We’re all focused here, really having our nose on the grindstone and doing the work, trying to help the people we serve,” he said. “And to have the community rally around, this has just been wonderful.”
Last year alone, CenterPointe served over 4,400 people and will look to continue that effort at the new location.
