Work begins this month on a new aged-care centre at Arvida’s Waimea Plains retirement village that will deliver 24 care units and 16 dementia units.
In addition to the care and dementia options, the Arvida Waimea Plains Care and Living Well Centre development will house a cafe, swimming pool, hydrotherapy spa, gym, and a dedicated activity space for interests and events for the village.
Village manager Kerryn Tasker says the complex will provide care options not only for the village’s residents, but also the wider Nelson region.
Originally, the care centre plan included 59 rooms over three levels, but Arvida paused the development early last year, citing changing market conditions, including construction costs.
Village residents Trevor and Ann Tuffnell moved to the village six years ago with the expectation the care centre would be ready for them when they needed it.
Eighty-six-year-old Trevor admits he has grown cynical about the care facility being built but will be celebrating with a beer when he sees it get underway.
“The good news will be when I see a builder’s shed on site. Good luck to them to get it done.”
Trevor says it gives them a degree of comfort to see progress on the facility, though it comes later than they had hoped and may not be useful to them by the time it’s built.
Further up the road at Arvida’s Oakwood’s retirement village, residents’ committee chairman, Jim Wiseman, welcomes the news that construction is about to commence. The Waimea Plains development will increase the care facilities between the Arvida retirement villages.
“It’s very much needed. Absolutely excellent.” While fewer rooms than initially planned, he says it will help alleviate some of the need for aged-care beds within the region in the future.
“There will always be a shortage, and it will get worse before it gets better.” Jim says the US private equity investor, Stonepeak, which purchased New Zealand’s Arvida group last year, said it was “here to do something” and the care facility is an example of it doing that.
Christchurch-based Armitage Williams Construction is the main contractor project and an Arvida spokesperson says its decision took into consideration the construction company’s work on the clubhouse in the retirement village.
Arvida expects the first resident to move into the care facility in August 2027.
