Community Health & Wellness

Senior center construction could begin in 2028

Posted on December 18th, 2025 By: Marsha Hart

After three years of feasibility studies, surveys, focus groups and a volunteer task force, a new senior center is coming to the intersection of Point Fosdick Drive and 36th Street NW.

The Greater Gig Harbor Foundation hopes to break ground on the $14 million senior center in 2028. The foundation’s next task is raising funds and building community support.

Plans call for a nearly 6,000-square-foot senior center on the 13.15-acre site. The foundation envisions a campus that will serve multiple generations, according to GGHF CEO Julie Gustanski. The foundation is the nonprofit umbrella of the Gig Harbor Senior Center.

Search for a new home

The senior center has been without a permanent home since 2019. The Peninsula School District purchased its previous building, the former Boys and Girls Club on Skansie Avenue, and converted it into Pioneer Elementary.

The Greater Gig Harbor Foundation plans a new senior center at the intersection of Point Fosdick Drive and 36th Street NW.

The campus will include three permanent structures: A senior center, a community event space and an environmental learning center that will also house the foundation’s Curious By Nature School. The foundation’s offices also will move to the site.

Most of the land will become a conservation area, with construction on only approximately two acres.

Gustanski said the project is a community endeavor. The foundation hired local architecture and construction firms.

“All of the design and engineering and construction team are Gig Harbor-based entities,” she said. “We are working very hard to make this all about our community, which includes getting contractors and expertise like this from our community engaged.”

Aging population

The community needs a dedicated space for seniors to socialize and learn, she said.

“A significant portion of our population is over 60,” Gustanski said. “It’s surprising that we, in 2025, are finally getting to the place where we say that this is a need.”

The foundation plans to preserve most of the property as a conservation area.

The space provide fitness and wellness programs, meals, art, technology training, social services and lifelong learning. The adjacent event center will have a capacity of up to 300 people.

Providing seniors in the community a place to socialize, learn and create alongside young people has been a dream for Joyce Schultz, director of the senior center.

Intergenerational campus

Having seniors and children on the same campus will provide more opportunities for intergenerational programs and activities, she said.

Curious By Nature currently offers an outdoor education experience for 2- to 6-year-olds and enrichment classes and camps for ages 4 to 11 at its Wagner Way site. The school will move to the new campus.

“This is being called an environmental learning center,” Gustanski said. “It’s not only for the Curious By Nature School, we plan on working with other community partners to provide a range of environmental programs.”

Her vision for the environmental learning center includes a space for workshops, Master Gardeners, the Pierce County Conservation District and other programs.

Trails will loop through the portion of the property not used for construction of the senior center.

Gustanski and Schultz are eager to provide the community with a unique and important place to interact.

“I’m excited about having a multi-generational space,” Schultz said. “We talked about putting in a garden area, and that would be my focus of creating intergenerational programs.”

Volumes of research show the benefits of intergenerational spaces, and Gustanski said the senior center will bring something unique to the community.

“It will benefit children,” she said. “From cognitive and academic skills, to cultural understanding, communication, and social and emotional skills. Perspectives are changed immensely when children have the opportunity to be near seniors. And benefits can happen for senior mental health, their cognitive health, and all sorts of benefits can happen in intergenerational spaces.”

Pierce County owns 209 acres of adjacent land. The combination will provide the center with outdoor classrooms, trails, and gardens, giving visitors and residents a view of forest land.

Community involvement

The foundation is forming a Campaign Committee that will will begin meeting in January. The nonprofit is also seeking Founding Donors and considering a naming campaign.

The Founders Campaign will provide permanent recognition on a Founders Wall for those making a multi-year pledge. Founders will get invitations to milestone events and early access to select programming.

For now, the foundation is calling the project the Harbor Center. But it will invite the community to help name the campus, buildings, and protected lands. That starts with an open house planned for January.

For more information about the senior center or the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation, visit gigharborfoundation.org. To see architectural renderings of the planned site, visit gghfharborhub.org/gallery.