Aged-care provider Life Care proposes $250 million upgrades to sites in Glen Osmond, Norwood and Joslin
A LOCAL aged-care provider wants to spend $250 million transforming three retirement homes in Adelaide’s east to capitalise on the region’s ageing population.
A LOCAL aged-care provider wants to spend $250 million transforming three retirement homes in Adelaide’s east to capitalise on the region’s ageing population.
Unley-based Life Care has lodged plans with the state’s Development Assessment Commission (DAC) to redevelop its sites in Glen Osmond, Norwood and Joslin.
The projects — part of a wider $500 million upgrade of Life Care’s properties across Adelaide — would deliver more than 360 independent-living apartments and aged-care beds in the next decade.
Life Care chief executive Allen Candy said the developments would cater to the region’s growing elderly population, and a desire by people to retire in their local communities.
Census data released last month showed about 20 per cent of people living in Norwood, Payneham & St Peters, Burnside, Mitcham and Unley councils were aged 65 or over — compared with 17 per cent statewide.
The number of over-65s in Adelaide was expected to increase by almost 30 per cent to 274,000 in the next 10 years, according to Federal Government projections.
“We know we have a shortage in accommodation for ageing people in Adelaide,” Mr Candy told the Eastern Courier Messenger.
“There is huge demand in this area … and people as they look to downsize they want to only move 5km-10km away because you have friends, you have doctors.”
The $116 million plan for the Glen Osmond Rd site, next to Seymour College on Portrush Rd, would include a building of up to nine storeys with almost 200 beds, a courtyard and consulting rooms.
Life Care’s $89 million vision for 157 Beulah Rd includes five levels of independent-living units, while up to $44 million would be spent on the second stage of work at its site on Payneham Rd, Joslin.
Mr Candy said each development would include allied-health services, but not the long corridors and communal dining areas that made traditional retirement homes feel “almost a step down from hospitals”.
“I think that aged care has tended to build castles around itself — moats, even — to keep the old people in and the young people out,” he said.
“Our research is telling us that families want to remain together, not isolated, and that we need to consider the whole family unit, not just the person.”
Life Care’s proposal comes three months after the State Government introduced planning rules that mean aged-care or retirement village projects valued at more than $20 million are considered of economic significance to SA.
Under the new rules — which the government said was in response to Adelaide’s ageing population — Planning Minister John Rau would assess proposals directly after the DAC received applications and conducted public consultation.
Mr Candy hoped work on the Joslin site would start next year, subject to approval.
He said work at Glen Osmond, Norwood and Life Care’s other properties, including at Reynella, Golden Grove and Everard Park, would be completed in the next 8-10 years.
The $500 million expansion would provide up to 700 new beds and create 380 construction and 400 ongoing jobs, he said.