New photos reveal Footy Park transformation as UnitingSA hits highest point of aged care home
From the hub of South Australian football to a massive construction site, Football Park is changing into a housing, retail and aged-care precinct.
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Once the centre of South Australian football, the transformation of Football Park into a residential, aged care and retail precinct is well underway.
The extent of the overhaul became obvious on Monday when UnitingSA topped its $50 million aged-care project at West Lakes, lifting a tree to the top floor.
Kicks and marks have been swapped for cranes and men in hard hats, with the West Lakes Boulevard development reaching its highest point of 23.15m.
The Advertiser captured the changing face of West Lakes from the top of the building, revealing the dramatic change of the ground where people once gathered for pre-game barbecues and packed in on freezing aluminium rails for a glimpse at their team. A total of 671 workers have so far touched the project, expected to jump to 900 by its completion.
Another 150 will work in the centre once it is built.
The massive aged care complex is set to be finished by the end of the year and take in its first residents next year.
It will include 108 permanent care rooms across three storeys, as well as a memory support unit for people with dementia.
The top floor will have 17 two and three bedroom retirement living apartments looking across the oval, lakes and Adelaide Hills. A cafe, hairdressing salon and allied health clinic will be open to the public on the ground floor.
UnitingSA chief executive Libby Craft said the mix of accommodation would allow couples in which one person needed constant care, while the other was still mobile, to live in the same place.
“We know being able to live under one roof will bring peace of mind to many during this later stage of life,” Ms Craft said. “Across the aged care sector, the need for this combination of accommodation on one site is increasingly being recognised as important to people’s ongoing health and wellbeing.”
UnitingSA chairwoman Gael Fraser praised the project for continuing uninhibited during the coronavirus pandemic.
“UnitingSA West Lakes has been a long-held vision of ours and we are excited to be part of a growing community which has older people at its heart,” Ms Fraser said.
The aged-care centre is part of Commercial & General’s redevelopment of Football Park, which will have about 1300 new homes.