$200 million plan for Repat development includes futuristic village and experimental accommodation
THE group behind the Repat development has a $200 million vision for a futuristic village complete with inventors and experimental accommodation.
THE Repatriation General Hospital site developer has a seven-year, $200 million vision to turn it into a futuristic village complete with inventors and experimental accommodation.
However, the ACH Group declined to say how much its Open Daws consortium plans to pay for the site, while a three-month due diligence check followed by a month finalising the contract, is underway.
ACH officials told a parliamentary inquiry into Transforming Health they were unsure when this would end as they have not been advised by the State Government, but “assume” it started when they were named preferred developer on October 25.
ACH Group chairman Geoff Holdich told the committee the group would draw up a masterplan once the contract is signed, to be ready to start building once the State Government hands over the site in December 2017.
He said the work would take seven years, although the Transforming Health website states it will take five years and be finished by 2022.
Under the plan, the site will become a hub providing high-quality healthcare, with education and research facilities, student and “affordable” housing as well as aged care and veterans’ accommodation, and some retail in what ACH predicts will be a “vibrant village”.
ACH chief executive Dr Mike Runge said technology would have a big role in improving the quality of life for residents, with “inventors and start-ups working with locals on inventing and testing a whole variety of solutions to their lives”.
“It will be a smart and learning precinct,” he said.
The site will have three forms of residential aged care: short-term for people who temporarily can’t stay in their own home such as on discharge from hospital; longer-term “experimental” accommodation for people who need some care; and long-term aged care for “early adopters living in a smart community”.
The site also will have palliative care, with Mr Holdich noting the average length of stay in nursing homes is falling.