Not For Profit Holy Family Services has begun groundworks on its two-storey, 60-bed Nazareth Building, after revisions to its plans to align it with the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines took Blacktown City Council nearly 10 months to approve.
With a development application approved in 2019, Chief Executive Officer Alasdair Croydon told The SOURCE they hired architects Constructive Dialogue Architects (CDA) to redesign the new Nazareth Building.
CDA had helped to draft the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, which became the official guidelines for aged care developments from 1 July 2024.
"The Blacktown City Council took 289 days to approve a Section 4.55 Variation to the DA which is what held us up. It should have taken 4-6 weeks," Alasdair said.
The new Nazareth Building, located in Marayong, 38km north west of the Sydney CBD, will replace an older building and will join an existing aged care wing through two short, glass corridors.
The facility will contain four separate apartments over two levels, each with their own living, dining and kitchen spaces. Sym Studio Landscape Architects designed the gardens, and the site includes Plover Café, which is open to the general public including those attending church on the site.
The cost of construction should come out just behind earlier projections of $28 million, but the fit out and furniture will add another $1.2 million.
In future, Holy Family Services plans to demolish older rooms that contain two or four beds, in total 56 beds, making way for new residential aged care beds or retirement living accommodation to be built, Alasdair added.
The builders on the project are Grindleys Construction. The project is expected to be completed in early 2026.
