Hillview Healthcare Center breaks ground on $19.6 million renovation, expansion that’s aimed at offering broader services

One La Crosse nursing home is getting ready to greatly expand and remodel to meet the community’s current needs.

The Hillview Healthcare Center broke ground Wednesday on a $19.6 million facility that will provide assisted living, where every resident can have a private room, along with bridge housing, an intergenerational daycare and more.

“Most residents, when they move in, are not looking forward to having a roommate,” Hillview administrator Kelly Kramer said. “They haven’t had a roommate since college days, so having a private room is very important to them, and having that privacy, it gives them a more dignified area of living.”

La Crosse County Board chair Tina Tryggestad is excited about additions.

“The intergenerational day center is cutting edge, and something that all of the communities that were together” at a recent Wisconsin counties meeting in La Crosse “were very jealous of,” Tryggestad said.

Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds allowed the county and Hillview to move ahead with construction.

Kramer said the project dates back to a study done six years ago. The building changes are expected to be complete by the end of 2025.

The overall renovation plan for Hillview, located close to the bluffs near Ward Avenue, was approved by the county board almost a year ago, though county officials have been working on plans to modernize it for more than a decade.