Apollo Care Alliance has purchased the shuttered St Lawrence Residential Aged Care home in Harden, NSW, and will reopen it by the end of the year.

Formerly run by Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT, the 45-bed home an hour and a half northwest of Canberra closed down in February last year and stayed closed after Cowra Retirement Village’s attempt to purchase it fell through.

Apollo Care will now reopen the home as Harden Grange Aged Care Community later this year, thanks to assistance from the Harden Regional Development Corporation (HRDC).

According to Apollo Care CEO Stephen Becsi OAM (pictured), Harden Grange represents a new type of venture for the provider, which typically takes on and “de-risks” operational but struggling aged care facilities.

“This one for us is a startup – it’s an empty facility, and we’re bringing it back to life. So for us, Apollo Care gains another skill set.

“It’s basically a startup in the truest sense of the word, rather than taking on something that is running but in distress,” he told The Weekly SOURCE.

Stephen added that the quality of the building and the ageing local population made it an appealing option.

“It’s a very good building, it was designed well and built well. Our inspection absolutely confirmed that it’s a wonderful facility, the demographics of the Hilltops region indicates that it needs beds.

“So you’ve got a great facility, you do have demand there, and for us, we had the perfect ingredients for us to go in and give something back to a town,” he said.