A new retirement village Fullarton officially opens this week with its own cinema and bowling green
Houses are selling for up $1.5 million at the newly-opened retirement village. Picture: Sam Wundke. Source: News Limited
AS YOU walk into the building at 123 Fisher St, Fullarton, in Adelaide’s inner southeast, it feels like a five-star hotel — there’s a grand foyer with a concierge, a restaurant and a Hudsons coffee shop.
The only difference is everyone is old — it’s actually what the developer bills as Australia’s most luxurious retirement village.
GALLERY: Take a tour inside the new retirement village
“To our knowledge there’s nowhere else in Australia done quite the same,” Living Choice Australia managing director Ian Tregoning said.
“It’s the newest, it’s state of the art.
“There are a couple of villages in Sydney and Melbourne which are very nice, but this is head and shoulders above anything else in Adelaide.”
As well as the usual facilities — nursing staff, a craft room, a workshop — this retirement village has its own bowling green, an indoor-heated pool, a gym with pilates and yoga classes, a hair and beauty salon and medical consultancy rooms.
It even has its own surround-sound cinema with Gold Class-style seats. Residents can go to the weekly shows or book it for when the grandkids come over.
Jenny Orchard, 74, who moved in on Friday with her husband Don, is looking forward to the pilates classes and taking on their friends in bridge in the party room.
Don, 80, is looking forward to apartment living — their new home is a three-bedroom penthouse with views of the city and the hills.
They used to live in a large family home in Wattle Park.
“This is going to be a totally different style of living — and I wanted to get out of gardening,” Mr Orchard says.
Their fifth-floor apartment doesn’t seem that different to a regular one, except when you look closer: every doorway is wider than usual to fit a walking frame or wheelchair, the shower is enormous and there are no steps anywhere.
Residents can get medical care in their room if they are bedridden. Catering is available for parties.
“As you get older you don’t want to be rushing around the place — they come to you,” Mr Orchard says.
The project has taken Living Choice Australia more than five years and $112 million to build.
Prices for apartments range from $470,000 to $1.5 million. Buyers have to be 55 or older.
“There’s a number of privileged retirees that have lived a good life and want to live in a retirement village that’s commensurate with their current lifestyle in their own home,” Mr Tregoning says.
“We specifically designed this for privileged people and discerning residents.”
In what Mr Tregoning said was a first in Australia, most of the village’s facilities will be open for the public to use.
“We want the village to be part of the community rather than elitist for retirees only,” he said.
“We want to have a relationship with the surrounding community, which is unique and is working very well so far.
“It brings vibrancy to the communal areas that most of our villages don’t have to date.”
Governor Hieu Van Le will officially open the complex on Thursday, February 19, at 10.15am.
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