After an almost four-year fight, family-owned and operated major provider TriCare has again reduced the size of an approved independent living and residential aged care home on the former Ithaca TAFE site in Ashgrove, 5.1km northwest of Brisbane’s CBD.
TriCare initially wanted to develop a 214-unit building but received approval for a 163-bed five-storey development in January 2018. Then a 151-room plan was modified in 2019 and again in June this year. Each application has been met with strong local opposition.
Now TriCare wants to build the development in stages and include a 35-room assisted living section.
TriCare has now applied to use levels four and five as a retirement facility. It has also applied to have the project staged, with the first stage to be a 116 room residential care facility on level 3. Stage two would include 35 residential care (assisted living) rooms on levels four and five.
“This arrangement will provide the applicant with the flexibility to operate levels four and five as a residential care facility in the event that the retirement facility is not taken up,’’ planners Town Planning Alliance said in the DA documents.
There have been 38 aged care facilities approved in Ashgrove since an aged care incentive was introduced in 2016 before being abolished 18 months later.
