English Meadows owners want to invest $120 million to expand facility

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BEDFORD (WSLS 10)  Business owners in Southwest Virginia are looking to revamp a Bedford landmark.

Twenty/20 Management bought the Elks National Home in September of 2014 and changed it into English Meadows Senior Living Community.

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Now the group is looking to invest $120 million to expand.

Peter Gorant has lived at the English Meadows facility for 12 years and he said he's glad the 100-year-old building is under new ownership because the owners are now planning to revamp the recreation room and add more staffing in the dining room so workers can prepare 600-700 meals a day.

Sharon Jones is a third-generation worker at the building and she, like many others on the property, feel the changes are good.

"We have more people coming in and the more people the better because I love having fun,"  Jones said.

Steve Orndorff, a co-owner of Twenty/20 Management, is one of the owners of English Meadows Senior Living Community.

Orndorff said the biggest change is building a cottage-style community for those in their golden years who may want to live independently.

"We want to turn it into a full campus down the road where you have the independent cottages you would come to the assisted living, from there maybe if you ended up in nursing home or skilled facility you would go there," Orndorff said.

The price tag to eventually build homes, a hotel and fitness center on the 180-acre campus is $120 million.

Money well spent when the owners say in about 20-30 years there's going to be a demand for senior care.

According to the United States Census Bureau, in April 2010, people 65 years and older comprised 16.2 percent of the population. By July 2015, that number jumped to nearly 20 percent.

The owners said construction on the cottage community is expected to begin in about a year.