A ground breaking ceremony for a million dollar indoor rehab aquatic center was recently held on the grounds of Villa Maria/St. Catherines Rehabilitation Hospital in North Miami. Funded by a $1,000,000 grant from the North Dade Medical Foundation, the new center will feature a temperature controlled indoor pool, complete with all the necessary accessories and equipment to allow most patients to participate in therapeutic aquatic exercises supervised by qualified physical therapists.
(l-r) Frank Vilar, Sr. Partner, Arellano Construction; Ginger Irving, Administrator, St. Catherines Rehabilitation Hospital; James Ball, COO, Catholic Health Services; Dr. George Daviglus, Chairman fo the Board, North Dade Medical Foundation; Kevin Burns, Mayor, City of North Miami; James Reiss, Executive Director, Villa Maria Nursing Center; Emilio Lebolo, Gallo Architects
“Not only are we breaking ground in order to build this wonderful new aquatic center but we are also breaking ground in the South Florida medical landscape by offering all inclusive comprehensive acute medical rehabilitation services to disabled persons in our community and giving them hope for recovery, improvement, independence and a higher quality of life,” commented James A. Ball, Chief Operating Officer of Catholic Health Services.
Chairman of the Board of the North Dade Medical Foundation, Dr. George Daviglus, remarked on the worthiness of the project and the contributions St. Catherines Rehab Hospital makes to the community.
The architect of the 2,600 sq ft project, designed to be incorporated to main building, is Emilio Lebolo III, of Gallo Architects. The construction company under contract to build the aquatic center is Arellano Construction. The expected date of completion is spring 2007.
