Navigator Homes of Martha’s Vineyard announced Tuesday it has been approved for $44.5 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop its proposed skilled nursing home in Edgartown.

The facility, intended to replace the Windemere nursing home currently located on the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital campus, is now before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI). The proposal would create a 66-bed nursing home and a 48-unit workforce housing complex on about 28 acres along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven road.

In a news release, Navigator Homes said the facility has been approved for a $36 million direct loan and an $8.5 million guaranteed loan as part of the USDA Community Facility Funds program. Approval of the funds was the result of a combined effort by Islanders, the USDA Rural Development Southern New England Office and its director Scott Soares, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Reps Bill Keating and Jim McGovern, the release said.

Navigator said it has received more than $2.3 million in private donations to date and needs to raise another $2.9 million to draw down on the USDA loan.