The Idaho Division of Veterans Services says it will resume construction in the spring on a 64-room veterans home in Post Falls on a 7-plus-acre parcel of donated land.

Veterans Services broke ground and began site work in the final quarter of 2020  and recently shut down for the winter, says Kevin Wallior, a Veterans Services spokesperson.

The project is slated to be completed in the fall of 2022, he says.

The estimated 83,400-square-foot facility will be located on land fronting Lochsa Street, adjacent to the Biopol Laboratory Inc. and Buck Knives Inc. facilities, in the Riverbend Commerce Park. The Jacklin Land Co. donated the land to the state.

The planned skilled-

nursing facility will be Idaho’s fourth veterans home. The others are located in Lewiston, Boise, and Pocatello.

The four-wing, 64-private room building originally was projected to cost $49 million, but the rise in the cost of construction materials in 2020 will push the cost higher to an amount that is still being tabulated, Wallior says.

The Veterans Services Division based its initial estimate on the fact it was anticipating receiving a federal grant award letter earlier than last August when it arrived, he says.

A spike in commercial and residential construction material costs – in large part due to the spread of COVID-19 — wasn’t anticipated at the time the federal award for the veterans home was submitted, Wallior says.

“The scope of the project hasn’t changed,” he says.

Project architect Orcutt|Winslow, of Phoenix, is working on the design with Castellaw Kom Architects, of Lewiston, Idaho. Core Construction of Boise, and Headwater Construction of Victor, Idaho, are the project’s general contractors.

Plans call for the home to have a centralized community center, dining room, multiuse common spaces, and administrative offices. The facility also will include a common food preparation area, a laundry facility, maintenance supply areas, a covered pickup and drop-off area, and parking for 90 vehicles.