{"id":43374,"date":"2023-04-13T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=43374"},"modified":"2023-04-13T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T10:01:00","slug":"rutland-heights-breaks-ground-as-harmony-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/04\/13\/rutland-heights-breaks-ground-as-harmony-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutland Heights breaks ground as Harmony Place"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

RUTLAND \u2014 On a hill overlooking Rutland once stood the buildings of Rutland Heights.<\/p>\n

Today, there is open ground, the buildings having been removed after the hospital closed, while the town sought to put the site to new use.<\/p>\n

In the future, a new community will arise where the veterans hospital once stood.<\/p>\n

Harmony Place broke ground April 3, with officials participating in a ceremonial gathering with Harbor Classic Homes, a Leominsterbased development company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was decades in the making,\u201d Laural Adams, Harbor Classic vice president, said, noting the \u201cmilestone we\u2019re getting ready to celebrate\u201d as the ceremonial shovels were readied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of people to work on a project like this,\u201d State Sen. Ann Gobi said as officials gathered on the windy hill.<\/p>\n

Noting how long ago the effort started, she said that her predecessor, Steve Brewer, helped with $10 million in state funds that helped raze the abandoned structures, but the work on the site was local.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts somewhere, and it started with the people here,\u201d Gobi said. With its over-55 focus, the development will help provide options.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to be able to stay in their community,\u201d Gobi said.<\/p>\n

As the ceremony progressed, Gobi said groundbreakings were good, but she looked ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what\u2019s better? The ribbon cutting.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Rep. Kim Ferguson recalled the process as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThinking back to hours of meetings and multiple visioning sessions,\u201d Ferguson said she was \u201clooking forward to seeing this develop over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, who represented Rutland when he was state representative prior to Ferguson, said he remembered the work on the site back then, adding, \u201cThere are a few projects I will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Sullivan of the Rutland Development and Industrial Commission acknowledged some of the many people who were part of the effort over the years.<\/p>\n

Referring to another benefit for the town, the bottom line, Sullivan noted \u201cthe $6 million in revenue this site will contribute to the town coffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan includes 142 housing units with community features such as a clubhouse, walking trails, fitness stations, pickleball and bocce courts, and a community garden as well as a dog park and \u201cpocket parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction is slated to begin in Septembe.r with homes of 1,200 to 1,500 square feet starting at $399,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUTLAND \u2014 On a hill overlooking Rutland once stood the buildings of Rutland Heights. Today, there is open ground, the buildings having been removed after the hospital closed, while the town sought to put the site to new use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}