The landscape is changing at the site of the former Albert Lea Golf Club.

After about three weeks of site work for the new St. John’s Lutheran Community on Fountain Lake, contractors on Tuesday began pouring footings for the assisted living and town center portions of the project.

The campus, estimated at $38 million, will be completed over phases and will overlook Edgewater Bay.

“Our board and I and the building committee are all excited we’re at this point,” said St. John’s Administrator Scot Spates.

Spates said the first phase, which is slated to be completed by April 2016, will include an assisted-living complex and independent-living complex, joined by part of the town center. The town center will offer 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.

The independent-living complex will be a two-story building with 20 apartments on the first floor and 20 apartments on the second floor.

The assisted-living building will have two floors, each with 16 apartments. The first floor will house memory care patients.

The second phase will include the nursing home, with 84 private resident rooms, which is slated to be completed in March or April 2017.

Spates said the general contractor is the Joseph Co. of Austin.

“We’ve had a good start with the weather,” said Pete Solie, job supervisor.

Spates noted he and the contractors are taking several precautions on the west side of the property to protect an eagle’s nest during the construction. He said he has seen two eagles going to and from the nest, and the nest is estimated to have one or two eggs inside. An orange snow fence surrounds the tree so contractors can identify it.

Solie and Spates asked that people stay back from the property for safety reasons and instead watch the progress of the development from the road.

St. John’s purchased the 51 acres of property — known by many Albert Leans as “the back nine” — 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.