Norwich ― Since it was built in 1926, the stately building at the corner of McKinley Avenue and Rockwell Street has housed a residential care home for the elderly, but now it too needs care for its aging parts.

State and local officials and representatives from United Community and Family Services, which runs Sheltering Arms Residential Care at 165 McKinley Ave., gathered Monday to celebrate approval of a $3 million state grant that will help fund a $4.5 million upgrade to the facility.

The grant, approved by the state Bond Commission on July 29, will help pay for renovations to the facility’s bathrooms and upgrades to electrical, plumbing and ventilation systems. The bathroom upgrades are top priority, as they will give residents private bathrooms and showers, said Pamela Kinder, the facility’s vice president of business development.

The 30-room facility currently has nine dormitory-style bathrooms. The renovations will create 14 residential rooms with private bathrooms and 16 rooms with 8 independent bathrooms with shower rooms, for a total of 22 bathrooms.

Kinder said she has been at UCFS for 19 years, and the project has been discussed for at least that long. Sheltering Arms has some vacancies now, she said, and many families say the shared bathrooms turns some potential residents away.

“The next generation of elders in our community don’t want dormitory-style bathrooms,” Kinder said. “We haven’t missed that idea. The pandemic also exemplified the need for private baths for infection control purposes.”

State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, whose district includes Norwich, said she has been working on the grant request with UCFS officials for the past five or six years. She said the state’s finances having improved in recent years and UCFS contributing $1.5 million in “real dollars” helped persuade top state officials to fund the project.

It also will create an estimated 60 temporary construction jobs and four permanent new positions, a combination of resident attendants and kitchen staff. Sheltering Arms now has 31 employees.

Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom thanked Osten and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz for supporting the project. Nystrom said his father lived at Sheltering Arms for two years and called the facility “a cornerstone of service” for the Norwich community and the region.

“To know that it’s going to be protected, preserved and improved, while probably maintaining most of the historic nature of this site is great news for the city of Norwich,” Nystrom said.

Kinder said UCFS hopes to hire an architect and contractor and start construction within six months. She said the agency will look for a contractor with experience in construction while the facility remains open, minimizing disruptions to residents and programs as much as possible.

“This building is concrete, and when we start getting into the walls, we’re not sure what we will find,” Kinder said. “I anticipate old fashioned plumbing and electricity.”

The Ross Adult Day center on the first floor will not be impacted by the construction, she said.

c.bessette@theday.com