Highwood Group, a Romsey-based property developer, has broken ground on a new luxury care home in the village of Horndean, working in partnership with specialist care operator Barchester Healthcare.
The milestone event not only marks the start of a first-class care home, it also marks the start of Highwood’s plans for a landmark development to provide an entire later living care and retirement community in Horndean. Set on the boundary to the South Downs National Park, the exciting project will be delivered in two phases and working in partnership with two of the UK’s leading care and retirement operators.
The first phase is a prestigious 60-bed care home featuring a best-in-class ‘C’ shape design, which has now commenced work, in collaboration with Barchester. The second phase will comprise a net-zero retirement village with 120 homes in partnership with Inspired Villages.
The luxury new care home has been designed with residents’ comfort in mind with a café for residents to socialise and enjoy freshly baked treats, spa bathrooms for a luxury bath time experience, beautiful en-suite bedrooms with smart TVs, a choice of comfortable lounges, a dedicated activities room, a cinema for an authentic movie experience, and in-house hair and beauty salon for a little bit of pampering. Completion of the care home is expected in summer 2023.
Phase two, which has just been agreed with award-winning operator, Inspired Villages, has outline planning permission for 120 retirement dwellings. Inspired Villages has committed to deliver the later years’ development as a net-zero carbon regulated retirement community for the over 65s.
The stylish age-appropriate apartments and bungalows will also include a village centre with a focus on wellbeing facilities such as a swimming pool, exercise studio, gym, library, craft room, restaurant, bar/café and cinema room. The submission for Reserved Matters for the retirement village will be made in the new year, with work due to start in 2022.
This project is a vital step in Highwood’s care and retirement portfolio expansion and will be the company’s first net-zero retirement village.
Senior Property Development Manager at Barchester, Grant Jensen, commented: ‘We are really excited to get this project under way. The new care home will be a fantastic addition to the Barchester estate and deliver high-quality care to the local community.’
Neal Dale, development director at Inspired Villages, said: ‘Inspired Villages is committed to creating industry-leading, sustainable retirement villages so people have more lifestyle choices as they age. We are therefore excited to be developing and operating the new integrated retirement community in Horndean which will sit alongside Barchester’s new care home. Our Horndean scheme will be a net zero (regulated energy) retirement village thanks to features such as air source heat pumps and solar panels, benefiting our residents and the environment generally.’
