Retirement village aimed at suburban elderly

Ryman Healthcare is to build a $90 million retirement village in north Christchurch aiming to attract up to 450 residents from nearby suburbs Mairehau, Shirley and St Albans.

Building on the site – grazing land that has been held by the same owners for nearly 30 years, west of the Ellington Park subdivision – could begin in six months, Ryman chief executive Simon Challies said.

Given low competition for land, a further two similar developments in undisclosed sites around New Zealand were likely to be announced within the next few months, he said.

Access to the 11-hectare site for the village would be on East Ellington Drive, around four kilometres from the city centre. "It's one of the last parcels of residential land within QEII Drive ... the way we look at it we want to build the villages close to where the old people are living," Mr Challies said.

Ryman would apply to Christchurch City Council for resource consents for the project in the coming months following preliminary discussions with council for what would be its sixth Christchurch village and 23rd nationally.

The company expected to match a 12 per cent increase in its trading profit (excluding property revaluations) for the six months to September 30, 2009, in its second half, he said.

Ryman recently opened villages in Whangarei and Orewa, both of a similar scale to the new Christchurch plan, and was turning away potential residents for some of its other Christchurch villages including Papanui-based Ngaio Marsh.

"Demand [for units] has been consistently strong for the past two years," he said.

It planned to open new villages in Gisborne, Highgate in Dunedin, where it had just started work, and was about to start a 120-person phase 2 addition to its Anthony Wilding site in Aidanfield, Christchurch.

When these and the new Christchurch facility were finished there would be another 2000 beds or units added to Ryman's existing 4000 beds or units.

"We're building at a rate of about 500 beds or units a year, so that's about four years worth of stock," he said. Mr Challies said up to 200 builders would be employed for the peak 12-month period of staged development for the northeast Christchurch village, comprising 180 independent townhouses, 90 serviced apartments, a 110-bed rest home, offering hospital and dementia care facilities.

Townhouses would be priced from under $300,000.

His best estimate for a date by which residents could move into the stage development would be in 18 months. On completion the village would employ more than 150 staff and feature a swimming pool-spa, bowling green, movie theatre, library and gym. The main complex would have an internal atrium and the site based around a village centre.

- © Fairfax NZ News