A key milestone has been reached on a new state-of-the-art luxury 78-bedroom three storey care home in Milton Keynes.
Leading care home operator HC-One held a topping out ceremony on Tuesday 20th February 2024 to mark the completion of the structure of its new Milton Keynes care home, which will be named The Applewood, and is due to open later this year.
The Applewood is located on Wolverton Road, adjacent to a large orchard and wildflower garden. The newly built care home will offer residential, nursing and dementia care for elderly people living in the local community and is set to create circa 90 new jobs in the area at full occupancy, with roles across care, nursing, property maintenance, housekeeping and food service.
Following planning for the development being delivered by Aspire LPP in 2022, HC-One have been working very closely with developers Aspire More Limited and contractor, Lawrence Baker Ltd throughout the construction process to ensure delivery of a home which is befitting of HC-One’s high standards.
The home will offer luxurious communal facilities for residents and their families or friends to enjoy including scenic gardens, spacious lounges and dining areas, bar bistro, hair and beauty salon, cinema, library and a private dining area for family celebrations.
Design philosophy embraces industry leading standards of dementia friendly environmental design, with a focus on creating a calming, therapeutic living environment to help people feel at home.
Operator HC-One offers professional residential, nursing and dementia care for older people in c.260 care homes across England, Scotland and Wales, and has one of the highest review scores across the care home sector having a 9.5 average rating on the carehome.co.uk website.
The new care home will be the company’s second facility in Milton Keynes, with sister care home Highclere Care Home already a well-regarded care home in the local community, rated Good by CQC and sitting at a 9.7 out of 10 review score on Carehome.co.uk.
The Applewood is the latest care home to be built in HC-One’s new build programme, which saw three homes open in 2021 (in York, Bingham and Telford) and a new home set to open in Oswestry later this year. This new build programme is complemented by HC-One’s wider £93 million refurbishment and upgrade programme, to modernise and enhance the living environments and facilities of more than 200 of HC-One’s existing care homes across the company. This is the largest ever care home upgrade programme in the UK and will ensure that people across the UK can live and work in specialist, comfortable homes fit for the future of care.
Bernard Mawoyo, Managing Director at HC-One, said:
“We are delighted to be marking this key stage of the development.
“At HC-One, we strive to be the first-choice care provider for residents and colleagues in every community we serve. As the second HC-One home in the Milton Keynes area, we are very much looking forward to opening the doors of The Applewood and working with more talented colleagues in the local area to provide the kindest possible care to elderly people in the local community in our new welcoming, state-of-the-art home.”
Adrian Ball and Michael Lucas, Director’s at Aspire More Limited, commented:
“From the outset we identified this location as being very well suited to this senior living development, being surrounded by local amenities in Milton Keynes. We are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made and feel the finished product is going to offer a first-class facility, both for HC-One and the local community. We look forward to the grand opening later in the year.”