Construction on the new St. John’s Lutheran Community on Fountain Lake is slated to begin March 2015 after a few delays this year, according to administrator Scot Spates.

The total cost is estimated at $38 million, including land costs, architect fees, furnishings, equipment, construction and other fees. Construction alone is $29 million, and The Joseph Co. of Austin has been awarded as the general contractor for the project, he said.

“We would have liked to have started last spring or this fall, but there were too many issues that needed to be resolved,” Spates said.

Plans include not only a new nursing home but also an assisted-living complex and an independent-living complex, all joined by a town center, which offers services including an activity room and chapel, a barber and beauty shop, a coffee shop, a technology center and a fitness center, to name a few. There will also be owner-occupied duplexes. The campus will overlook Edgewater Bay.

St. John’s purchased the 51 acres of property — known by many Albert Leans as “the back nine” of the former Albert Lea Country Club — in December 2010 from American Bank of St. Paul for $7,200 per acre. The land had been in the hands of the bank after it was surrendered by commercial developer Scott LaFavre following the property’s foreclosure.

Spates said if all goes according to plan, contractors will begin building the independent-living and assisted-living buildings in March, with completion slated for June 2016. The independent living building will be two stories tall with 20 apartments on each floor. The assisted living will be two stories tall  with 16 apartments on each floor. The first floor will house memory care patients.

Construction on the nursing home and town center will begin next, with the project slated for completion by June 2017.

Spates said the first phase of the nursing home will have 84 private rooms with private bathrooms and will be three stories tall. The first floor will provide short-term or transitional care.

The building is designed so that smaller groups of patients share kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms. He said the new design will allow staff to better provide care to patients and aims to break away from the institutionalized feel of these types of facilities.

There are already 73 people on the waiting list for the assisted and independent living portions of the project, he noted, with at least three of them interested in duplexes that will be off to the east of the project.

Some of the people on the waiting list live in Albert Lea or the surrounding area, and some do not. He said there are a few people on the list who lived in Albert Lea before and are looking to move back.

The project is being paid for through a $19.5 million United States Department of Agriculture loan and other tax-exempt bonds.

Spates said the organization plans to launch a capital campaign to raise money for a portion of the town center.

He estimated the goal for that campaign would be set next summer.