Building blitz continues at Zionsville’s Hoosier Village with $20M expansion

Hoosier Village, one of Indiana’s oldest and largest senior communities, is about to expand again—for the fifth time in seven years.

The 300-acre campus in Zionsville has broken ground on a $20 million expansion: a three-story building with 80 apartments. The new building, called Cedarwood, is expected to open in 2021.

It’s the latest stage in a series of expansions at Hoosier Village to meet the demand for senior living in central Indiana.

Hoosier Village is owned by BHI Senior Living of Indianapolis, which also owns retirement communities in Fort Wayne, Columbus and Frankfort. Earlier this year, it bought the financially distressed Barrington of Carmel, a 271-unit that opened in 2013, out of bankruptcy for $61 million.

The not-for-profit attributes its expansion to the aging of the baby boom generation and says it has a “robust waiting list” of 220 applicants at Hoosier Village.

The expansion marks the latest in a building blitz at Hoosier Village. In 2012, it opened Hickory Hall, a memory support center; along with a wellness center with indoor pool, fitness center, spa and art studio.

In 2013, it opened Hawthorn Hall, a three-story complex with apartments and restaurants.

In 2017, it opened The Oaks, a complex featuring 4,000-square-foot duplexes. And earlier this year, it open Poplar Chase, a complex featuring single-family homes and duplexes.

Altogether, Hoosier Village offers five “neighborhoods” for independent living, one for assisted living, a memory support center and a health and rehabilitation center. When the latest expansion is complete, the complex will have 538 units in all.

BHI (short for Baptist Homes of Indiana), began in 1904 as a church-sponsored orphanage called Crawford Baptist Industrial School, on 185 donated acres in Zionsville. From 1905 to 1951, more than 1,500 children called the complex home.

In the early 1950s, as orphanages began phasing out, the complex changed its name to Indiana Baptist Home and began taking in senior citizens. Hoosier Village opened in 1952.

According to its 2017 IRS tax filing (the most recent one available online), BHI took in $49.4 million in revenue and had expenses of $47.4 million, for a $2 million surplus. The operation had net assets of $48.6 million.