Call for next stage of agedcare facility

Demand shows planning should start: Kircher

PLANNING for a second stage of the Observatory Retirement Village in Oamaru needs to go ahead, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher says.

He made the statement following a meeting with Oamaru resthome providers, but the Waitaki District Council declined to provide a written summary that was this week given to councillors about the meeting.

The meeting was held after councillors decided in February it was needed so everyone understood the agedcare market in the town.

About the same time, the council agreed to give the Observatory Village Trust a $250,000 funding boost for stage 2 of that retirement village.

Mr Kircher, a councilappointed trustee, said he believed the interest in the $21 million retirement village open ing this winter in Oamaru showed the trust needed to be able to start planning its second stage.

Mr Kircher did not vote in the February funding decision.

At the time, some agedcare providers in Oamaru questioned the role the council planned to play with the Observatory Village Trust, and whether its involvement was commercially or socially motivated.

‘‘I absolutely understand where the sector is coming from,’’ Mr Kircher said. ‘‘[But] the trust is a communityowned trust that is providing a service, particularly through the retirement village, and there’s a good demonstration of the need when we have had such success with those villas and apartments.’’

The new resthome would be filled to capacity from day one.

Occupation rights agreements for all 12 apartments of the first stage had been sold and the plan had been to build three villa show homes, one of each size proposed, in the first stage as well.

‘‘Before we’ve actually even finished the pads we’ve got nine under contract,’’ Mr Kircher said yesterday.

Compounding the demand for aged care in Oamaru, the 55bed Rendell on Reed resthome in Reed St was sold late last year.

Its 40 residents would move to the 41bed care facility on Observatory Hill when it was completed in August and the Reed St resthome closed.

Planning for stage 2 of the development would aim to add 40 beds, but Mr Kircher said the level of interest in the facility showed Observatory Hill would remain a construction site for the time being.

Overall, there was room for about 70 villas on the site.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz