General manager of The Vines at Bethlehem, Stuart Cheeseman talks about the new venture.
Two luxury Tauranga retirement villages have completed major projects worth a combined $42 million, including a new care centre and the transformation of an “iconic” winery building into a clubhouse.
The $30m residential aged care centre at Pacific Coast Village in Pāpāmoa opened with a blessing on Wednesday and will add 60 jobs.
Meanwhile, a $12m retirement village clubhouse that once housed the iconic Mills Reef winery building officially opened at The Vines at Bethlehem on Friday.
Figures from the Retirement Villages Association show 15 of its 35 villages in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty are expanding, adding another 1400 units and bringing an estimated 900 jobs and $119 million in direct economic impact to the region.
Pacific Coast’s The Care Centre - Te Manaaki offered rest home and hospital-level care, including palliative and end-of-life care. The new 3000sq m, two-storey facility included 58 care suites, with the “premiere suites” featuring a kitchenette, dining and lounge area, walk-through wardrobe, and an ensuite.
Generus Living Group director Graham Wilkinson said, in a statement, the completion of Te Manaaki allowed Pacific Coast and its neighbouring sister village Pacific Lakes to offer a full continuum of care from independent living and serviced apartments to residential aged care.
Wilkinson said Te Manaaki emphasised a personalised approach where residents could take the lead in their own lifestyle and be supported by clinical staff and family.
Te Manaaki will also be available for local residents needing its care and amenity, which Wilkinson said was “sorely needed” given the Bay’s demographics. Public open days will be held this weekend.
Wilkinson said the name Te Manaaki, loosely translating to care and support, acknowledged the group’s partnership with Mangatawa Pāpāmoa Blocks Incorporation, whose ancestral land the villages were built on.
Mangatawa Pāpāmoa Blocks Incorporation chief executive Scott Wikohika said, in the statement, it was proud “to have partnered in an investment that celebrates and recognises the value and contribution people continue to make to communities throughout their lives, regardless of their age”.
Pacific Coast's new residential aged care centre The Care Centre - Te Manaaki. Photo / KJell Nilsson
Construction of a $30m community centre called The Pavillion was also under way at Pacific Lakes, the statement said. The village had completed 170 villas and expected to reach 250 when The Pavillion was completed in two years.
The two villages have about 600 residents, a population expected to swell to 800. They employ 60 fulltime employees but expect to eventually have more than 140.
Meanwhile, the clubhouse at The Vines at Bethlehem was completed in February last year but hosted its official opening last week, attended by residents and people involved in the project.
The clubhouse project - a renovation of the former Mills Reef winery building - was given the green light in 2020 and had a total cost of $12m.
It includes an in-house coffee lounge, movie theatre, bar, hairdresser, beautician, meeting room, library, arts and crafts rooms, cards room, pool and snooker rooms, indoor bowls, a function room, an indoor heated swimming pool, gym, as well as outdoor space for bowls, and pétanque.
Mills Reef's Art Deco building was formerly the winery's tasting room, restaurant and offices. Photo / George Novak
The project has been nominated for the Naylor Love Heritage and Adaptive Reuses Property Award in the Property Council’s Industry Property Awards this year.
The Vines sales manager Tony Stack said the clubhouse had proven a compelling selling point for the retirement village development, which was home to about 230 residents.
Stack said 150 units out of the 192 planned were built and occupied in the village and inquiries were “solid”.
”We are currently running a large number of conditional contracts … We have a lot of referrals from people who are already living in the village.”
It was hoped the village would be completed within two years, he said.
Classic Group director Peter Cooney, former Mills Reef owner Paddy Preston, The Vines at Bethlehem sales manager Tony Stack, and Classic Group managing director Matt Lagerberg.
The Vines at Bethlehem is owned by Classic Group and Kauri Investments Ltd and is managed by retirement operation business Classic Life.
Classic Life general manager Stuart Cheeseman said he was “thrilled” with the new clubhouse, which had retained much of the original building’s Art Deco look and feel.
Cheeseman said the residents had benefitted hugely.
”It is gold,” he said. “By using the footprint of the existing building we have come up with something close to twice the size of what otherwise would have been.”
Cheeseman said the village was about 75 per cent complete.
Classic Life general manager Stuart Cheeseman and The Vines at Bethlehem sales manager Tony Stack pictured in front of the newly-opened clubhouse. Photo / Alex Cairns
Retirement Villages Association of New Zealand executive director John Collyns said rather than demolishing an “iconic” Tauranga building, The Vines at Bethlehem had refurbished and enhanced a “beautiful Art Deco amenity” into something fit-for-purpose for the 21st century.
“It is a great example of how retirement village operators are able to take a brownfields site and renovate and repurpose it.”
Collyns said the 3640 units across Tauranga and Western Bay’s 35 villages were home to about 4730 residents - about 38 per cent of the area’s 75-plus age demographic.
Collyns said, based on prior economic research, the 1400 units in the pipeline for the region were worth an estimated $119.8m in direct investment and $372.88 in downstream investment, as well as creating an estimated 900 full-time equivalent employees once they were fully operational.
“The Tauranga region has always been a popular destination for retirees – a benign climate, access to good medical and hospital services, within easy reach of Auckland and Hamilton, and there is a plethora of lifestyle opportunities.
“We expect these attributes will continue to attract older Kiwis from across New Zealand Aotearoa and the retirement village sector is keen to provide warm, dry age-appropriate homes, companionship, and financial security for them.”
Zoe Hunter is an assistant news director covering business and property news for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She also writes for NZME’s regional business publication Money and has worked for NZME since 2017.
