The new senior center in Long Beach will be roomier and newer, planners said in a town hall Monday, despite the disclaimer that its location is, in fact, smaller and older.
Staged in the old center’s auditorium, a panel of project managers and architects updated several dozen seniors on their plans and reviewed results of a survey from August and September that netted more than 500 replies.
This comes as the city continues its push to move the senior center a mile west from its Fourth Street location in Alamitos Beach to the ground floor at 125 Elm Ave. in Downtown Long Beach.
Officials hope to have a full design of the facility by the end of 2025 and begin construction in 2027, with a move-in date set for early 2028.
It would replace a 77-year-old center, which operates at increasing capacity. Despite the well-intentioned pride of its staff and more than 200 seniors who use it daily, the current site cannot help but show its age. Ceiling tiles are blackened and stained. Linoleum floors are cracked. Panelists sitting on the auditorium stage shook their feet on a cracked and scratched wood floor.
Long Beach Senior Project Manager Derry Mac Mahon said the current facility hasn’t undergone major renovations in at least 15 years.
Yet it serves, according to the survey, a population that lives alone or with one other person and bikes or drives themselves or takes an hour-long bus or train to be there, despite most having some form of disability.
And that population is growing. Dana Clark, who oversees the center, said 17% more seniors visited than the year prior, an uptick she said coincided with the waning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Seniors who answered the survey said the current site is inaccessible, unclean, unsafe and fails to provide sufficient programming, parking spaces and separation from nearby homeless.
Grumblings extended to the new location, despite the rosy presentation by the panel.
While three-quarters of respondents said they would visit the new center, a quarter said they won’t, saying the chosen location is too far, too crime-ridden, and too small, which they fear will result in programs being cut.
The current building is also newer, a technical difference of 77 to 82 years old.
Ken Ong, an architect with Westgroup Designs, said the current building — a narrow, two-story affair — wastes a lot of its 53,000 square feet, as rooms have been repurposed over the years to accommodate activities they were never meant to fit.
“So you might have more space here, but it is less usable space,” Ong said. “And so when we are looking at the new facility and the opportunities there, we think by the time we’re done, you’ll be amazed at what the new senior center is going to be like, in comparison to what you’re basically enjoying right now.”
The new location, he added, will be within two blocks of eight transit stops, including one stop that will be moved to the front entrance. It will also include double the amount of available parking, from 60 to 125 spaces.
Preliminary renderings depict an excess of natural lighting, outdoor dining, recreation rooms and sleek, earth-tone furnishings.
Current programming will carry over, said Sherlyn Beatty, the city acting manager for park planning and partnerships, with the possibility of adding more classes and activities like pickleball. “It just might look a little different,” she added.
Monday marked the final public meeting before planners begin drawing up designs for the new center, with plans to have final renderings by the end of 2025.
The five-story building, from the second floor up, is currently a parking garage. The first floor is a window-lined office space, formerly occupied by Southern California Edison Company.
City planners eyed the former Southern California Edison building as it is centrally located and composed of reinforced concrete that can accommodate the center at a cheaper cost than renovations to the current building.
Officials said they plan to build a city police crime analysis lab on the third floor and office space on the fourth. Any future construction on the upper floors will have little impact on the senior center or their parking spaces, planners said.
Officials do not yet have an estimated cost of the project, though City Manager Tom Modica has said it will cost less than renovating the current site would.
The council, which has come under increased pressure to replace the aging center, approved the $21 million purchase of the new building in October 2022. About $19.6 million is financed through the sale of bonds, with $4 million pledged by the city.
Once completed, Mahon is confident it will be a “smooth transition” to the new center, as opposed to displacing seniors with renovations to the current one. He clarified that either timeline, from outreach to move-in, would take about four years.
“This way the senior center never closes,” he said.