SPRINGFIELD – After a decades-long campaign, a significant step in building a centrally-located senior center will soon take place.

City councilors, elected officials, department heads, and stakeholders joined Mayor Domenic Sarno at Blunt Park on Oct. 6 to announce the long anticipated $12 million senior center building project would go out to bid this month after more than 20 years of delays.

“We were wet behind the ears when this all started and now we’re seniors, so now we’ll get to enjoy this place now ourselves,” School Committee Vice Chair Chris Collins joked during the ceremony also attended by local seniors and the city’s Department of Elder Affairs staff.

City Councilor Clodo Concepcion, who Sarno said helped lead the charge, said he was excited the city would soon offer a place the seniors could take pride in.

“This is going to be a place you can hang your hat and say, ‘This is my place,’” he said.

While many speakers spoke of the length of time it took to move the project forward and remembered the efforts of Concepcion, Ruth Loving, Kathleen Murphy and Millie Penniman, multiple speakers credited the Sarno Administration with making the talks a reality.

“This project has gone through four mayors and it took Mayor Sarno, who is following a plan for this city, to get this done,” Patrick Sullivan, executive director of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management.

Sarno explained the project was made possible due to federal disaster relief funds, grants and donations.

The new senior center will be a two-story building with 25,000 square feet of space, which will include a 3,000-square-foot banquet room, a café-style area at the front entrance, and a teaching kitchen.

The facility and its staff would also forge connections with the senior housing developments in the city as well as Putnam Vocational Technical Academy and the High School of Science and Technology (Sci-Tech), he said.

City Councilor Ken Shea said the senior center would be “the crown jewel in Western Massachusetts and New England and the model of how a senior center should look and function.”

Sarno also thanked the Parks Department and the School Department for their cooperation and noted with the location of the senior center, the city wished to “couple indoor activities with the outdoors and natural beauty and resources of Blunt Park.”

In order to develop the park land, according to state law, new land had to be identified and preserved as park space. The School Department offered a parcel of land near Sci-Tech for that purpose.

Parks Commissioner Brian Santaniello said the project was “probably the dearest and nearest to my heart,” adding, “The seniors are so important to me and the community.”

Sarno also recognized the support received by MassMutual and Sodexo, the food service company for the city’s schools.

At the event, MassMutual presented the city with a $100,000 check, while Sodexo added a $50,000 contribution to what Shea called a “resource enhancement” effort aimed at collecting $350,000 to outfit the building with furniture, computers, fitness equipment, and supplies.