The latest plans for the historic estate at Mount Eliza, Victoria. Photo / Ryman Healthcare
The latest plans for the historic estate at Mount Eliza, Victoria. Photo / Ryman Healthcare
Ryman Healthcare is now doing more detailed planning work for the construction of a new A$317 million ($344m) Australian retirement village, after winning consent for a scheme less than half what it originally planned.
A Ryman spokesman in Australia said today that work would now get under wayfor the smaller consented village.
The business originally applied to develop 217 independent living units or apartments on the 8.9-hectare seafront Moondah Estate, at Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula, 45 minutes from Melbourne.
But it put forward and won consent for just 104 units after making major changes following authorities rejecting its much larger plans, and in the face of strong local opposition.
“Scaled-down development is an understatement,” one opponent from the area said this week of Ryman’s smaller plans for the waterfront land.
The company spokesman said staged construction was planned. That might be this year.
“We still need to get detailed drawings endorsed by the council and meet a number of pre-commencement conditions before construction can begin,” he said, referring to the Mornington Peninsula Shire.
“This can take a number of months and we hope to start work as soon as practicable after that,” he said.
“There will be a staged construction, with the first residents moving in around 24 months after work begins. The rest of the village is scheduled to be completed about 24-36 months after that. We don’t yet know what unit prices will be. We have around 500 people who have expressed interest in the village, the overwhelming majority living locally.”
Ryman bought the site from the Melbourne Business School in 2016 for A$37.5m ($40.7m). Then-CEO Simon Challies said at the time that it was the company’s fourth Australian site.
This shows company plans for the mansion, now approved. Photo / Ryman Healthcare
But since then, Ryman has been unable to build, mainly due to regulatory rejections.
That changed last month when the much smaller scheme won consent from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
The scheme that was originally submitted to the shire was 396 units: 217 independent living units, 55 assisted living suites or serviced apartments and a 124-bed hospital.
The plan that went to the tribunal in 2021 was scaled back to 311 places in total: 181 units, 48 apartments and an 82-bed hospital.
The scheme the tribunal approved on December 28 last year was just 191 places: 104 units, 27 apartments and a 60-bed hospital.
The spokesman said today the original plans were not proposed in 2016. It was that year Ryman announced it had bought the site, but it wasn’t until 2019 that detailed planning work began. Although it was seven years since the company bought the site, planning applications had only been made during the last three years, he said.
The shire rejected the original plans and the tribunal backed that rejection in 2021.
So Ryman made significant changes to the building form, layout, height, and bulk, and changed aspects such as mowing the bowling green, which was to be in front of the historic Moondah mansion.
The village is planned to respond to the aging population in the area. The number of Australians aged 70-74 grew by 273,000 to 1.16 million, rising from 3.8 per cent of the population to 4.6 per cent now.
Opponents Save Reg’s Wedge said on January 2: “What can you do now? Friends, we are down but not out. Despite VCAT’s decision, we can still fight this massive, inappropriate development”.
An appeal to the Supreme Court is one option but that must be lodged within 28 days of the December 28 decision.
Those opposed to the scheme worried about the development’s effect on wildlife: “The respondents are concerned about the impacts on local fauna and were critical that the proposal lacked species identification on the subject land. They say the existing trees currently provide shelter and habitat for a variety of birds, possums, koalas, and other wildlife,” the tribunal’s December 28 decision noted.
But the shire did not object to the ecological and vegetation impacts of the development and the tribunal said it considered the opponents’ points. “We find that a list of fauna species on the subject land is not required,” it said.
Ryman submitted the area was a low bushfire risk but the Green Wedges Guardians Alliance complained about the loss of native vegetation and said residential development should be prohibited in green wedge areas. The company’s landscape expert told the tribunal 356 trees on the site and groups of trees would be retained.
Shares are trading on the NZX around $5.60, 53 per cent down annually.
