Everything from the aesthetics of the building to inside the residents’ rooms is updated and modern. There are wooden shutters inside the rooms that make it look like anything but a hospital room.

In fact, it looks more like a condo apartment.

That’s how Pamela Fey describes the new addition at Chateau St. James Rehab and Retirement in Lutcher.

The 116-bed skilled nursing facility that provides physician-directed, short- and long-term care with a broad range of nursing and rehabilitation services, unveiled a new, 20-bed private wing this month.

Fey, who serves as accounts manager and admissions coordinator, at the facility said there is nothing like it from Destrehan to Gonzales.

“In St. John and St. James Parish, there is nothing like it,” she said. “We wanted family members who are not at that transitioning point yet to be able to have that mindset that this is not a nursing home. They can be more OK with coming and being able to help themselves. We wanted to offer something to both St. John and St. James Parish for the elderly community in that aspect.”

The work — which was celebrated with a ribbon cutting Jan. 21 — cemented phase one of a three-phase, $3 million project enhancing the entire facility.

The second phase targets the rest of the residents’ rooms, scratching out everything in an effort to make it feel new.

Facility hallways will also be targeted.

The last phase sets up the front offices and therapy center for improvement, while also adding a carport for River Road access.

Fey said patients at the facility today remember coming into the location when their parents were there.

“That’s a long-standing building with older architecture,” Fey said. “You can see it in the building as soon as you walk in the door. All of that is going to be scratched. We’re not going to have any of those old architecture displays that used to be prominent back in the day. That is not a part of the nursing home culture anymore. We’re going to scratch that.”

Fey, who has been around the nursing home business since she was a 13-year-old junior volunteer in Texas, said she has an open heart toward the elderly community.

“Seeing the process that our owners are taking with their time in this project — it’s really heartfelt to work for a company that cares for the elderly community,” she said. “That means a lot.”

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.