A new senior center across the street from City Hall in Park City is nearing completion.

City Clerk Bobby Bunnell said the project has been in the works for a few years.

David Lyons, the former mayor of Park City, initiated the project, which secured a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant that was received in 2015, after current Mayor Shannon Crumpton took office, Bunnell said.

“We think it would be a great asset for our community and our elderly people,” he said.

The new center will be valuable for a group of seniors that meets once a month at the Park City Lions Club, he said.

The project was bid to Hodgenville’s John Bell Construction last year for roughly $432,000, Bunnell said.

“We already have some seniors who meet locally,” he said. “This will give them their own place to meet, which they haven’t had before.”

Crumpton said the center will allow the group to more easily schedule events like classes and informational sessions.

“We’re just looking forward to getting the center open and having activities for seniors in our community,” she said.

Leon Higginbotham, a member of the group – which is generally referred to as the Park City Seniors, although it doesn’t officially have a name – said having a dedicated meeting place would give the group more opportunities to meet and have guest speakers.

“It just gives us more to look forward to,” he said. “We’ll have more room to do activities. Really, we’re not doing much right now.”

A meeting place of its own will also make hosting potlucks easier for the group because it would allow members to keep dishes and utensils at the senior center, Higginbotham said, adding that bringing dishes and utensils to the Lions Club has been an obstacle for some members in the past.

“This will be something new for us and it’s a beautiful building and we’re all excited about it,” he said.

The project was initially supposed to be the renovation of a building that once housed a garage and later served as storage space for Square Deal Lumber but ended up as a complete demolition and reconstruction of the building, Higginbotham said.

“In the process of tearing down the front part, it made the rest of the building unstable and it all had to come down,” he said.

The city will officially maintain ownership of the building, which will also be rented out for other events when the Park City Seniors aren’t using it, he said.

Higginbotham said the renovation of the building is mostly complete. For now, only a door and some tile flooring still need to be installed.

The group hopes the building will be complete by July, he said.