Napier District Masonic Trust

1000 Omahu Road, Hastings, New Zealand | 0800 789 870 www.floormart.co.nz CARPETING YOUR HOME MADE EASY FREE MEASURE AND QUOTE THE NAP I ER DI STR I CT MASONI C TRUST built 26 units in what they called the Mission View Masonic Village. Then in 1994, just around the corner they built Knightsbridge Village with 36 units, and in 1997 they built another 36 units within about a km and they called that Kensington Village. Today we have 142 units across the city, mainly 2-bedroom units with integral garages. Those are in the three large villages but the other small villages are still in operation. “The last development was the Taradale Masonic Village. It was initially just villas but then a residential care facility was built on the site. That facility has grown to now have 38 rest home beds and 30 hospital level care beds. Five years ago the Trust bought another residential care facility, Elmwood House, in Napier which has 39 beds; 25 for dementia care and 14 for hospital level care. Elmwood House was privately owned, and when they were going to sell they approached us about buying the property, which we did in 2014. The Napier District Masonic Trust owns the facilities and the Trust is autonomous from the four Napier Masonic Lodges, however those Lodges have representatives on the Trust board.” BVO: Are there further developments planned? Taylor: “I’ve been General Manager just over 10 years. In that time we’ve focused more on development of the care facility but we’re now moving more into a phase of building more retirement villas. The Trust had the foresight to purchase properties around the Taradale Masonic site, so now we’ve taken away some residential houses on that land so we could build a new kitchen and dining room. We have our own industrial-sized laundry onsite. We added 12 beds about nine years ago and now we’re looking at utilising the land adjacent to the care facility to build more retirement villa complexes. That development will probably start early in 2020. We’re in the process of clearing some of the land adjacent to this facility. We’ve sold two residential houses for removal and we’re hoping we’ll get underway with building those units after Christmas.” BVO: Do you have a waiting list? Business View Oceania recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graeme Taylor, General Manager of Taradale Masonic Rest Home & Hospital, Elmwood Masonic House & Hospital and Napier Masonic Trust Villages, about these wonderful facilities and the charitable Trust that is giving back so much to the local community of Napier. BVO: Can you share the history of the Trust’s evolution with retirement and aged care facilities? Graeme Taylor: “The Trust started building blocks of retirement units back in 1969. For a long time they were referred to as capital contribution units, where the Trust set up the process for people of less fortunate means who couldn’t afford homes to buy the right to live in a property. The initial block in 1969 was called Scinde, which has the same name as Scinde Island prior to the 1931 earthquake, which is now Napier. Then they progressively built small blocks of units. In 1973 they built one; in 1983 they built one in another location. It wasn’t until 1992 when they first embarked into a retirement village complex and Scinde Village Morris Spence Village