ESCANABA – An open house was held Wednesday at the new OSF Physical Rehabilitation and Wellness Center being built next to the hospital in Escanaba. Construction is expected to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

The public was welcome to tour the facility throughout the day. That night, members of the Delta Chamber of Commerce attended to Chamber’s Business After Hours event at the building.

Construction began a year ago on the $4.45 million facility near the hospital. Funding included a $2.5 million gift from the John & Melissa Besse Foundation. Their son Greg and his wife Diane attend the Chamber event.

Also attending was former OSF St. Francis Hospital president and CEO Peter Jennings, as well as the current president and CEO David Lord.

Those that attended the open house walked through the various rooms including where they were still putting together the treadmills and where the therapy pool is being constructed.

Pat Lindow, a member of the OSF St. Francis Foundation which helped fund the construction, says he likes the way the facility looks.

“It’s almost complete and you can certainly see the potential for the new facility. The contractor did a great job,” Lindow said. “I was struck by the size of the building and the different services that we are going to be able to provide at the new facility.”

Paul Bracket, rehabilitation manager at OSF, says he is also impressed with the size of the facility.

We have a huge center gym with a cathedral ceiling. It’s well mapped out with a great patient flow. It’s a bigger space for pediatrics and athletes to be able to work in,” he said. “Prior to it, our small children, pediatrics, were very distracted with the closed quarters of our current state. With less distractions it will be better rehab.”

The hospital handles more than 56-thousand rehab patient visits each year. The new facility includes outpatient speech therapy, a wellness area, and warm water pool therapy.