Ryman begins building its biggest village

How Brandon Park could look once finished.

New Zealand's biggest retirement village owner-operator Ryman Healthcare has started construction work on its largest project to date, the $360 million Brandon Park in Melbourne where more than 700 residents will live.

The project in Wheelers Hill in the city's eastern suburbs will have 199 aged care rooms, 94 serviced apartments, 328 independent two- and three-bedroom apartments, indoor pool, theatre, cafe, hair and beauty salons and a bowling green.

Ryman, with a $4.3 billion market capitalisation and trading at $8.63, is developing the 5.6-hectare former secondary school site beside the Brandon Park shopping centre. Last month, The City of Monash approved the plans.

Ryman will have five Melbourne villages by 2020, starting with the Weary Dunlop village, opened in 2014.

Martyn Osborne, project manager on that village, is regional construction manager in Victoria overseeing the new Brandon Park project and three others:

• Burwood East: The 2.5ha site on Middleborough Rd in Burwood East is part of a large $500m Frasers Property Australia redevelopment of the wider 20.5ha site. Design work is well under way for the village, which will be a cornerstone of one of Melbourne's largest urban redevelopment projects.

• Coburg: The 1.2ha Coburg site is about 10km from Melbourne's CBD, and is well connected to the city by transport links. The site, which was formerly a school, had been previously approved for a large, 11-storey residential development by the City of Moreland.

• Moondah Estate, Mount Eliza: The 8.9ha Moondah Estate site is about 45 minutes from Melbourne's CBD and was built as a country estate in 1888 and has been most recently used as a Melbourne Business School campus. The site includes 240 metres of beachfront land and stunning sea views on the Mornington Peninsula.

Ryman plans to build as much new retirement village and hospital stock in Melbourne as it will throughout New Zealand.

See Brandon Park's location here:

Yet chairman David Kerr has ruled out any ASX listing for the business which has about 9000 residents but is forecasting 15,500 residents in the next five years.

Ryman's expansion is not without issues. At Devonport, on a waterfront site it has leased from Ngati Whatua, a group went to the Environment Court in late March, trying to force changes to its scheme for the ex-navy Wakakura greenfields site.

The Devonport Peninsula Precincts Society has raised tens of thousands of dollars to oppose Ryman, running a Givealittle page and holding a local event to sell goods, including a donated car.

A Ryman spokesman said he did not have an update on that court action.