THE blue ribbon was cut and The Shoreline, Coffs Harbour’s new, world class retirement village, was officially opened on Wednesday 22 February.

Around 100 residents already call the village home which will eventually accommodate close to 500 retirees.

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The grand-scale design has been ten years in the making, and as you walk through the doors, it feels like being on holiday.

The grandeur of the concierge sweeps towards a swimming pool surrounded by a deck of sun loungers and umbrellas.

That holiday feeling was not an accident, a fact which Steve Gooley, General Manager of the Bachrach Naumburger Group, is proud of.

“The feeling of being in a resort is what we targeted from the beginning,” he said.

“Resort living, quality aged care living, luxury retirement living, that’s been the theme we’ve been chasing.

“When you go into the concierge area, it looks like a hotel.

The pool area, outdoor areas and the outdoor living areas are luxury resort living.”

The creation of The Shoreline emerged from cherry picking the best features of grand designs across Australia.

“We sat through many, many meetings creating the design and we visited about 50 places around the country over a six year period,” Mr Gooley said.

“We picked some of the best features from each of them and also used our own ideas from holiday resorts.

“We’re not geniuses, we didn’t come up with everything ourselves, we leveraged from the best designs out there to create something unique for Coffs Harbour.”

As the evening sun drizzled over the swimming pool, Mr Gooley expanded on how the harmony of the natural elements intertwine with the building.

“We’ve used a lot of the natural elements and made sure that a lot of the outdoor areas have a lot of sun and there’s natural light everywhere.

“And the sea breeze sweeps through, we’ve utilised all of the good attributes of Coffs Harbour to make sure the region is part of the design.

“It’s definitely come up a treat, after eight to ten years of planning we’re enormously proud of it and we’re still not finished.

“We’ve still got nearly three years to go.

“We currently have 50 odd residents in our independent living units and we’ve got 50 residents in our aged care facility, so it’s starting to grow and it’s growing weekly.

“We will have close to 500 people living here across our 180 independent residences and our 120 bed aged care facility.”

Cutting the blue ribbon was a time to reflect and celebrate a decade of blood, sweat and tears.

The project was severely impacted by two years of Covid which resulted in numerous site closures and logistical headaches with materials.

The project has 35,000 square metres of floor slabs – over 2,000 truckloads of concrete, 1,498 screw piles, totalling 35,997 metres with an average pile depth of 24 metres.

972 solar panels give 395-kilowatt capacity – equal to 65 modern average house systems.

After Covid, the build was impacted by unprecedented rainfall which created a new list of challenges to wade through.
“It is a mixed feeling of relief and excitement,” said Mr Gooley.

“I am very proud to see the resort facilities are so well used and enjoyed by the residents.

“We’ve built an enormously good and social community here.

“A lot of the people that have moved in have become very friendly, they’re definitely using all of the resort’s facilities.

“The pool is very widely used, the chipping greens, the bowling green up the top, the vegetable gardens, the bar facilities, the food facilities, the BBQ areas.

“We’re really happy the plan has come together.”

Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh applauded a Coffs Harbour landmark built by locals.

“I am so pleased that over 90 percent of the workforce was employed locally.

“This facility has provided jobs to locals during the building phase and will continue to provide employment for years to come.”

That local feel resonated through the airwaves as music from the Bishop Druitt College school band provided entertainment and kitchen staff, chefs and waitresses beamed with big smiles.

“We’ve created a true aged care, retirement and health hub, and once the additional construction is completed, we will not only have a great village area that benefits retirees in Coffs Harbour and surrounds but will also employ in excess of 130 full time locals,” concluded Mr Gooley.

By David WIGLEY