Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Z Hotel officially opened Monday and already houses guests in the former Lake Theatre location at the corner of Main and Buffalo streets, Warsaw.
Zimmer purchased the theater for $155,000 and started construction activity in July 2005. After $5 million in renovations and adding a third floor, guests started arriving in August.
Ray Elliott, Zimmer president and CEO, said, "Surgeons are our No. 1 priority." The purpose of the project was to provide corporate housing for surgeons and faculty visiting the Zimmer Institute and other Zimmer travelers.
The Zimmer Institute is a 16,000-square-foot surgeon- training facility that opened in 2003 in Zimmer's corporate headquarters in downtown Warsaw. The hotel is within two blocks of the Institute.
The 25,000-square-foot Hotel already is heavily booked with guests. It is not open to the public.
In addition to 37 guest units with all the amenities of a first-class hotel, the facility offers a fitness center and business office, as well as a guest-kitchen stocked with snacks and non-alcoholic beverages adjacent to the lobby area.
One of the unique features of the Hotel is the artwork. The prints in the guest rooms actually are photographs of Zimmer orthopedic equipment, colorfully presented by local photographer John Hawkins. The Warsaw area is represented in prints throughout the building. An etched glass picture of the original Lake Theatre is featured on a wall in the elevator.
A staff of 10 Zimmer employees operate the Hotel, under the direction of Diana Rivera, Hotel manager. Rivera has more than 15 years of experience in hotel management.
The architect for the project was Scearce Rudisel Architects, Warsaw, and the contractor was W.J. Carey & Co., South Whitley.
Zimmer Mobile Learning Center debuts
Zimmer's new Mobile Learning Center made a brief stop Monday in front of the Z Hotel. The mobile center was on its way from the manufacturer to its first stop as an education center for surgeons, hospital staff and patients.
The new MLC is a 45-foot Prevost bus with three slide-outs and more than 30 feet of display space for products, instruments, acrylic models and equipment for hips, knees, trauma, extremities, spine and orthopedic surgical products. There are four plasma screens - three inside the bus for surgeon presentations or showing CD/DVD presentations and one in the lower bay for outside presentations. Workshop stations can be set up inside or outside the bus for "sawbone" surgical skills training or demonstrations.
Over the course of a year, Zimmer's Mobile Learning Center makes more than 200 scheduled stops, typically at hospitals where it is used to acquaint surgeons with the latest in orthopedic products and procedures and to conduct education training/in-services for hospital staff. Many hospitals also take advantage of the visit to conduct health fairs to educate their communities about orthopedic conditions and possible treatments.
The previous MLC was in a converted semi-trailer, which was difficult to park, was more than nine years old and had traveled close to 400,000 miles.
In the course of a year, the MLC will travel through the 48 contiguous states and parts of Canada. This year, the MLC is on track to welcome more than 13,000 visitors.
