Queenstown developer Chris Meehan, who launches his upmarket Northbrook Arrowtown retirement village this Saturday, says most buyers in his other villages said they’d never move to a retirement village.
Northbrook Arrowtown’s beside the first stage of Meehan’s huge Lake Hayes hospitality precinct, Ayrburn, which opened last December.
To be built towards Waterfall Park, it’ll comprise 142 independent one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, 26 care units and an arrival/amenity building including a cafe, cinema, gym, library, heated pool and salon.
A full-size $1 million show suite, depicting the interior design, opens on-site tomorrow.
‘‘We’re not bingo and bowls and all those things you think about when you think of a retirement village,’’ Winton chief executive Meehan says.
‘‘It’s literally like living in a five-star hotel with all your mates, and obviously you’ve got the benefit of Ayrburn within the grounds.
‘‘I like to make the car analogy, and I say the Summersets, the Rymans and the Arvidas and so on are, for the most part, anyway, at the Holden Commodore middle-of-the-road [end] and we’re at the BMW or Mercedes end.’’
The pricing certainly fits the billing — ranging from $1.36m for a one-bedroom unit (56-75 square metres) to $8.5m for a 280sqm penthouse.
About 48 units are being released for sale initially.
Meehan says stage one of construction, due to start next year, comprises the amenity building, the high-care building and the first of three residential apartment buildings.
The first retirees are expected to move in late 2027.
Included in the second stage is an 18-room boutique hotel and function centre by the waterfall.
Meehan recalls visiting Waterfall Park with his family when he was a nipper and watching puppet shows and swimming beneath the waterfall.
‘‘I’ve got very vivid memories of it,’’ he says.
