Young and old in development mix as nursing home and Montessori planned for rectory

Regular interaction between elderly residents of a nursing home, and young children attending a nearby Montessori school, form part of a novel plan to develop a prime site outside Cork City as part of a circa €15m investment.

The plans also include adapting a coach house on the grounds of Glanmire Rectory, Dunkettle, to provide a private function room where nursing home residents can celebrate family occasions.

The proposal by Aperee Cork Ltd, the operational arm of Blackbee Healthcare Fund, will see a change of use of the former Church of Ireland rectory from five-bedroom family home, which it has been in recent years, to a 100-bed nursing home facility, comprised of single, ensuite rooms, all housed in a planned 6,200sq m three-storey extension to the existing property, with one storey acting as a staff training centre.

Aperee CEO Paul Kingston, who has more than 20 years experience in the residential care sector, said the rectory itself will only undergo minor alterations and will act as the entrance to the nursing home. “The ground floor of the rectory will be the reception area, a casual space for residents to use, with some administration space on the first floor,” Mr Kingston said.

He said plans to develop a Montessori school that can cater for 44 children on the 5.8 acre site will allow the kind of intergenerational interaction that has been shown to benefit both young and old. “It will be structured, supervised, scheduled interaction that follows all the national guidelines,” Mr Kingston said, adding that it would “leverage the grandparent/grandchild interaction”, a model Scandinavian countries have harnessed to good effect.

While the planning application with Cork City Council also mentions modifications to a coach house on the grounds, Mr Kingston said the proposal is to convert it into a space that can be used to host private functions. “For example, it could be used as a private dining space for the family of a resident who wanted to celebrate an 80th birthday,” Mr Kingston said.

While the home will not include a dementia-specific unit, it will be dementia friendly. “That is certainly on our radar,” Mr Kingston said, adding that they are working with UK architects.

There are no plans for the gate lodge on the grounds.

The acquisition for €2.3m of the Glanmire Rectory site by Aperee late last year via Savills is part of a bigger plan it announced last July to both acquire and build nursing homes. Mr Kingston said four other acquisitions - involving about 250 beds - are in the pipeline in Munster, with two due to close by the end of the month, and all four acquired by the end of the first quarter. Aperee’s interest is in modern, easy-to-expand, nursing homes, he said. The company is also interested in developing greenfield sites in Munster, particularly in Cork City.

Mr Kingston said they expect to pump €14m-€15m (including the €2.3 purchase price) into the Glanmire Rectory site and that construction will begin as soon as they secure planning permission, with the project completed in 15 months, including registration with HIQA, the health watchdog.

“It’s going to set a new standard in the Cork region and the setting and the existing house will add to the sense of comfort and peace for residents,” Mr Kingston said. Plans to locate a new bus stop across the road from the entrance to the nursing home, near the new O’Flynn Ballinglanna housing development, would provide a sound public transport option for visitors, Mr Kingston added. Access to the proposed nursing home will be via the existing driveway and a new entrance on to the L2999 (as realigned).

Mr Kingston, a chartered accountant, previously oversaw the sale of CareChoice, a brand that operated six care homes in Dublin, Cork and Waterford, to French investment fund InfraVia Capital Partners.