Construction of The Hawthorndale Care Village project in Invercargill is underway, with Building Consent granted by Invercargill City Council.

The Hawthorndale Care Village Board Chair, Frank O’Boyle, said the detailed design work had been completed, the site civil works are all but finished, and the building will begin in earnest this month.

“We’re delighted to be able to announce that consent has been granted. Getting us to this point has been a long journey, and the team has worked tirelessly to complete everything required. This is one of those milestones that bring us closer to bringing to life our vision for the elderly and people with dementia.”

The village, expected to open in mid-2025, is an aged care facility inspired by the worldleading Dutch dementia village, De Hogeweyk. It will follow a social rather than a traditional medical/institutional model of care, allowing residents to live as normal a life as possible, exercising choice over their daily lives in a safe environment.

Construction project manager Nick Hamlin of Maxis Projects said the consent process had been straightforward but was glad to have it ticked off. Hamlin will now turn to the three separate building contracts running simultaneously on-site to build the care village, care house and retirement villas.

“We were delighted with the high quality of the contract tenders we received. We are pleased to announce that the local building firm, Henderson Construction, has been awarded the contract to build the main village centre, Amalgamated Building Ltd has been awarded the contract for the 13 care houses, and Bennett Homes have been awarded the contract for the ten retirement villas.”

The Hawthorndale project is expected to generate 300 jobs during its construction phase and, once open, create 11 new jobs and retain 87 job positions from the Calvary Hospital transition.

Margaret Brown, Manager for Calvary Hospital Southland, said she was delighted that all the hard work was paying off. “The Board have been on this journey for many years now, and with the building consent granted and building contracts awarded, its full steam ahead.”

For people wishing to donate and support The Hawthorndale Care Village, please visit: www.thehawthorndale.co.nz

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