Tauranga forms part of what retirement village operators describe as the Golden Triangle with Hamilton and Auckland. The large, ageing demographic of the three centres provides a tailwind for new developments to house that population.
Summerset chief executive Julian Cook said the company had been looking at Tauranga for some time.
Cook said Tauranga was in need of both care and dementia care facilities for residents.
"Summerset integrates care into its villages, so residents living in independent villas can easily move into more supported accommodation onsite if their needs change," he said.
"Dementia is a significant and growing health challenge, with more than 170,000 New
Zealanders forecast to have dementia by 2050," Cook said.
Summerset will partner with the former owners of the land, Te Kapu ō Waitaha, to provide educational scholarships in health and wellbeing, including care for the elderly.
"The scholarships are an opportunity to give back to the Waitaha people in an ongoing way. We feel very proud to be involved," Cook said.
Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless welcomed the development.
"There's obviously a big demand here with our ageing population. It's good we are getting a bit more of the younger people coming to live here now, but there are older people, even myself, who eventually will need a facility such as that."
Brownless said having an aged care facility based in Pāpāmoa East would help add to the balance of the new homes and childcare developments in the area.
In 2016, Summerset built an $80m retirement village in Katikati.
Summerset has 23 retirement villages completed or in development across the country.
In addition to these, Summerset has nine sites for development in Parnell (Auckland), St Johns (Auckland), Avonhead (Christchurch), Te Awa (Napier), Pohutukawa Place (New Plymouth), Richmond (Tasman), Papamoa (Tauranga), Kenepuru (Wellington) and Lower Hutt (Wellington), bringing the total number of sites to 32.
