Retirement village stopped by rush of competition
A flood of retirement home developments has prompted a major player to push pause on its plans for a prominent Coast site.
Business
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A FLOOD of retirement home developments has prompted a major player to push pause on its plans for a prominent Coast site.
Aveo Group has written to Sunshine Coast Council asking that its development approval for a retirement village in the middle of the Brightwater estate be extended for two years.
It gained approval in 2015 to build a retirement village for up to 270 residents as well as a shop and restaurant on the vacant Freshwater Street site across the road from Brightwater State School.
"The extension... is sought from council given that at this point in time the there is no identifiable need for the retirement village use in this location on the Sunshine Coast,” the letter read.
"Within the last year, similar uses have commenced in the Oceanside and Harmony estates, temporarily voiding the need for the use in the Brightwater estate nearby until further bed licenses are obtained.
The development approval is due to lapse on February 16.
"It is requested that council extend the relevant period to allow for the market of this use and product to grow, prior to developing the retirement village.
"It is predicted that need will be established as the ageing Sunshine Coast population grows.”
An Aveo spokeswoman said the Brightwater project was not in the company's development pipeline up to 2020.
"The precise timing can only be confirmed once the Aveo board approves to progress to development of the site, this has not occurred as yet,” the spokeswoman said.
She said Aveo did not intend to add an aged care element to the retirement village plans and the block would remain vacant for the time being.
Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said there was no question the Coast was well served by retirement villages.
"But also there is a lot of people moving here to retire,” Cr Jamieson said.
He said it would be counter-productive if the council made decisions about who could and who couldn't develop retirement villages based on whether the market opportunities were there or not.
"In the end the proponents have got to do their own feasibility studies to make sure these things are going to work.”
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