Ryman Healthcare gets go ahead on $317 million Mt Eliza village
Ryman Healthcare’s plans for a retirement village and aged care facility in Mt Eliza in Melbourne have been approved.
After more than three years since Ryman Healthcare submitted plans to council to build a retirement village and aged care facility on a waterfront site on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, the development has been approved by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The $317m development on nine-hectares in Mt Eliza – previously owned by Australian aviator and businessman Sir Reginald Ansett – involves the full restoration of the 42-room heritage-listed Moondah Mansion built by James Grice in 1888.
The village – on the site of the old Melbourne Business School at 60-70 Kunyung Road – will comprise 104 independent apartments, 27 assisted-living suites, and a 60-bed aged care centre providing low, high, and specialist dementia care.
It will include a bowling green, café, bar, cinema, indoor swimming pool, hair and beauty salon, gymnasium, and a place of worship.
Ryman Healthcare will also provide its own home care services to residents living in the village, as well as to older people living in the wider Mt Eliza community.
Ryman Healthcare Australia chief executive officer Cameron Holland said the organisation was excited about restoring Moondah Mansion and creating a continuum of care community for older people in Mt Eliza.
“Because the village will offer locals high-quality independent living and aged care options all in one place, residents will be able to stay in the community they know and love even if their health needs change over time.”
Ryman has already invested more than $800,000 restoring the property’s historic gatehouse and is committed to honouring the site’s heritage through careful design.
Colin Cook, the great-grandson of James Grice, welcomed VCAT’s decision to approve the village.
“Moondah is an historic treasure that is already starting to show signs that it’s in need of love and attention it very much deserves. We have always been confident that Ryman’s plans will preserve it from certain ruin.
“To see it fully restored and placed as the centrepiece of a new community for older people will be fantastic, and my great-grandfather would be quietly pleased to know it will be preserved and protected for decades to come,” he said.
Ryman Healthcare operates 45 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia, which are home to more than 13,200 residents, and the company employs 6,700 staff.
Main image and above: artist’s impression and slideshow of Ryman Healthcare Mt Eliza
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