The Avondale Retirement Village estate had regulatory commitments necessitating some demolition of existing buildings and construction of new aged care facilities. As a result, this project consisted of a new 122 bed aged care facility comprising 72 beds of high care, 35 low care beds and 15 special care beds across three levels of building.

The building also houses commercial laundry and kitchen facilities, basement carpark, caf̩, dentist, hairdresser and specialist consulting rooms. Beyond the main aged care building, there were other portions of work completed within the one contract, including a 1000sqm workshop building, significant services infrastructure and upgrade, demolition and civil works for a future stage of construction, and 800m of road reconstruction.

Initially won at competitive tender around $28m, North Construction worked very closely with the client and project architect over a period of three months to amend and reduce scope back to the client budget, which saw the project completed at around $24m. This excellent working relationship from the initial stages was carried throughout construction and to a successful completion within the clients committed time frames and budgetary constraints. Despite these budgetary constraints, a quality finish and overall peaceful, spacious and aesthetically pleasing building resulted.

The natural slope of the site dictated that the three different levels of the aged care building had very different footprints. This, combined with complex DA conditions, bushfire regulations, and environmental and heritage significance issues, contributed greatly to the complexity of the project.

North completed the project within the existing estate and with minimal disruption to the adjacent residents, facilities and neighbours, despite the fact that the infrastructure, and roadworks upgrades particularly, were of considerable significance.