PLANS to develop the north’s first dedicated retirement and assisted-living village in Carrickfergus go on public display today as part of the continuing consultation process.
The owners plan to develop 361 residential units, a medical centre, nursing home, spa/wellbeing centre and neighbourhood retail on the site, which is located on lands at 75 Belfast Road in the town.
A total of 42 acres of the site will also be developed into parkland which will incorporate walking trails.
Causeway Asset Management is managing the project on behalf of Kilmona Holdings.
It claims that developing the site will create around 300 jobs throughout the construction phase and sustain a further 100 jobs when completed.
Residents will benefit from on-site security and round-the-clock monitored CCTV, optional support services including laundry services, personal shopping, domestic cleaning and personal care.
The scheme will be residential led with 50 per cent of the homes being traditional semi-detached and detached properties with the other 50 per cent being apartments and assisted living units. A park and ride service between the development and Carrickfergus town centre will also be established.
Brian Kearney from Causeway Asset Management said: "This is an exciting project which we believe will be hugely popular. It is a high quality development, with an excellent mix of detached and semi-detached houses as well as apartments, all of which will be built to the highest standards.
"A retirement village of this scale is a first for Northern Ireland and we can see in other parts of the world how they have proven extremely successful and have added life to the towns in which they are located.
"This is the start of a process to revitalise a site which has been badly in need of regeneration for some time. We very much look forward to hearing the views of the public and other stakeholders.”
Stephen Blaney, design director at Coogan & Co Architects in Belfast, said: “The development will be a first for Northern Ireland. Retirement villages have proved successful in other parts of the world and it has been great for us to be able to design this one.”
The public consultation event will take place at the Loughshore Hotel in Carrickfergus today (2pm-8pm) and tomorrow (10am-3pm).
A consultation process has been ongoing since June on plans to develop and regenerate a 120 acre area of prime brownfield land in Carrickfergus.
