I am delighted to inform you all that Stage 1 of The Terraces at Paddington has been handed over to Presbyterian Aged Care (PAC) by the builder Multiplex.
This project is the largest single building development ever undertaken by either PAC or the Presbyterian Church in NSW. At a cost of around $150 million for the total project, this is a significant investment in the future of aged care services, not only for PAC but the whole of the aged care industry in NSW.
Indeed I firmly believe this project, once complete, will become one of the flagship aged care developments across the whole of Australia.
In the first stage which was handed to us today, we have a brand new 100-bed residential aged care building, 14 new independent living units, a stunning café and lobby with suites for hairdressing, beauticians and visiting health professionals. And we have a first rate multi-purpose room which will eventually house a community day centre.
At our PAC Managers Conference this week, we heard how transformative this project will be for PAC. The state-of-the-art technology that will be switched on next week at The Terraces will, over the next year or so, be rolled out to all PAC services across NSW. This includes brand new WiFi networks for residents, guests and staff, revamped telephony using NBN, and a stunning new nurse call system linked to innovative sensor equipment.
Further, the models of health and wellness services we develop at The Terraces over the next couple of years will form a base which we can adopt across the state.
All this will happen while we do what PAC does best – provide services for older people with a commitment to excellence, inspired by the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work put in by many people to get us this far. When I started at PAC a decade ago, planning for this project had already commenced. The historic Scottish Hospital site at Paddington has been a prominent feature of our Strategic Plans for all that time. People like our residential care executive general manager, retirement village & home care executive general manager, and former CFO were instrumental in the design of the buildings.
The PAC Board and Presbyterian Church Trustees had the foresight and guts to take the risk to back the project and approve it proceeding. I’d particularly like to acknowledge the Presbyterian Church of NSW General Manager and the Chair of the PAC Board. And of course, we obtained funding from Westpac Bank for this.
The Church had the foresight to appoint John Ishak to be Executive Manager of Development to manage the project on our behalf. John Ishak has worked tirelessly with the architects, consultant team and builder over the last few years.
More recently everyone on the PAC Executive Leadership Team, the IT team, head office team, and PAC Paddington team have been working overtime to get to this day. Our property & asset manager has done a phenomenal job in arranging all of the furniture and equipment for the new buildings.
We are appreciative of all the support from across all of the PAC family. The sense of excitement at last week’s Managers Conference was palpable.
Of course, we still have another 18 months of work on Stage 1a (13 additional independent living units) and Stage 2 (52 independent living units plus gym, swimming pool, library, theatrette, etc). The whole project is due for completion in April 2019.
In PAC’s 75th year, we have now taken possession of a brand new service which will be our shining beacon for at least another quarter of a century to our 100th Anniversary, and probably well beyond that. Well done all.
We hope you will join us in celebrating a truly astonishing achievement for the aged care sector.
We will hold an official opening ceremony for Stage 1 on 11 December 2017 where we will dedicate the building by prayer to God that it will be a place where older people can thrive.
Paul Sadler
CEO
Presbyterian Aged Care NSW & ACT