New retirement home to replace old Arcadia building
HISTORIC Arcadia Place in Observatory, home to more than 160 retired residents and run by NPO Cape Peninsula Organisation for the Aged (CPOA), will be demolished and a new building constructed this year.The building, built in 1957, posed health and safety hazards.
Head of sales and social work at CPOA, Ingrid Jacobs, said the Municipal Planning Tribunal met the organisation in December 2018 and provisionally approved the New Arcadia Development.
“We are constructing a new building that can accommodate a lot more people than before,” she said.
Jacobs said the rebuilding will be a thorough process that will take time.
“Residents could return to the New Arcadia in approximately three to four years”.
Residents are currently being moved out and placed at secure accommodations as they await the opening of the new Arcadia.
“The last lot of residents will be moved out by the end of February this year. Approximately more than 70% of residents have already been moved to their secure accommodations and everything is running as scheduled,” she said.
Jacobs assured the retirees that they were in good hands.
“All of our residents are within the organisation and the team that consists of the home manager, social worker and nursing staff, ensure that they are adjusting well and settling in.”
The new Arcadia is expected to have four to five more storeys added to the two existing storeys.