Green light for Ryman Healthcare’s second Melbourne village

MEDIA RELEASE March 29, 2017

Green light for Ryman Healthcare’s second Melbourne village

Way clear to start work on new Brandon Park village

The City of Monash has approved Ryman Healthcare’s plan to build a new retirement village at Brandon Park in Melbourne.

Ryman’s construction team will start preliminary work on the village after Monash councillors last night approved plans to build on a vacant 5.6-hectare site right next door to the Brandon Park Shopping Centre.

The village will include 199 aged care rooms, 94 serviced apartments and 328 independent two and three bedroomed apartments. Other amenities include an indoor swimming pool, movie theatre, café, hair and beauty salons and a bowling green. The village will eventually be home to more than 700 retirees.

Brandon Park is Ryman’s second village in Melbourne, and the village’s first residents are expected to move into their new apartments in 2018.

Ryman Managing Director Simon Challies said getting the green light for Brandon Park was great news and a major milestone for the company

“Sites this large in urban Melbourne are rare and the village is as large as anything we have built before,’’ Mr Challies said. “It is a big commitment and it signals that we mean business in Melbourne.’’

“We’ve already had keen interest from 350 potential residents. Our construction team has been gearing up to get started and we will begin work right away.’’

Ryman’s first village in Melbourne was opened in 2014 and sold faster than anticipated. Mr Challies said it had proven that Ryman’s model of combining independent living apartments with a care centre on the same campus was well suited to Melbourne.

“Following on from that success we committed to matching our New Zealand build rate in Australia. We set a target of building five villages by 2020 in Australia, and we are now well on the way with another three villages in the design phase right now.’’

“We learned a lot first time around and we have built a great team in Melbourne who have been keen to get going on the next project. We’ve had a great welcome to the area from the people of Monash and we are pleased the council has supported this proposal,’’ Mr Challies said.

“We can now get on and build a beautiful new village so that residents who love the area and want to stay can do so with the peace of mind of knowing there is care for them if they need it.’’

The new village is likely to appeal to residents from Wheelers Hill, Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, and Mulgrave. There are 100,000 people in the immediate suburbs and Monash has been identified as an area of Melbourne with an ageing population that needs additional care beds.

Mr Challies said the next step was to find an appropriate name for the village. Ryman Healthcare names all its villages after significant locals. Its first Melbourne village was named after Sir Edward Weary Dunlop, the surgeon who worked tirelessly to keep prisoners of war alive on the Burma Railway during World War 2.

“We’d love to hear naming suggestions – we’ve had a lot in already and we’d like to make to decision in the next few months.’’

Ryman Healthcare has been in business since 1984 and Brandon Park is the company’s thirty second village.

Ryman’s other sites:

Burwood East: The 2.5-hectare site on Middleborough Rd in Burwood East is part of a large $500 million Frasers Property Australia redevelopment of the wider 20.5-hectare site. Design work is well under way for the village which will be a cornerstone of one of Melbourne’s largest urban redevelopment projects.

Coburg: The 1.2 ha Coburg site is about 10km from Melbourne’s CBD, and is well connected to the city by transport links. The site, which was formerly a school, had been previously approved for a large 11-storey residential development by the City of Moreland.

Moondah Estate, Mount Eliza: The 8.9 hectare Moondah Estate site is about 45 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD and was built as a country estate in 1888 and has been most recently used as a Melbourne Business School campus. The site includes 240m of beachfront land and stunning sea views on the Mornington Peninsula.

About Ryman: Ryman Healthcare was founded in Christchurch in 1984 and owns and operates 31 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia. Ryman villages are home to 10,000 residents, and the company employs 4,500 staff.

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