Expansion begins on Minneapolis Veterans Home

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs breaks ground Monday on a $29 million expansion of the Minneapolis Veterans Home.

The expansion will include a 100-bed nursing care facility to replace a historic building demolished last year.

State veterans affairs spokesperson Anna Lewicki Long said the expansion will be based on a neighborhood model.

"It will have sort of a town center with a barber shop and a beauty shop and a theater," Long said. "It will even have a museum and include some of the original elements from the building -- the previous historical building."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affair is funding 65 percent of the project. The state is paying the remaining 35 percent.

Construction on the expansion is scheduled to be complete by spring 2012.

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