IT'S set to become the Ritz of the care home world.
A former council-run home is to be given a £2 million makeover to turn it into a luxury "care hotel".
Featuring chandeliers, en-suite bedrooms with mini-bars, and hotel-style dining, the development is being marketed at both permanent residents an
d elderly tourists.
When complete, the former Grange Nursing Home on Chalmers Crescent – to be known as Glencairn Tower in recognition of the original name of the building when it was built in 1877 – will feature a hotel-style lobby.
Rooms at the 26-bed facility will cost up to £1000 a week – among the most expensive in Edinburgh.
Developers also expect it to be popular with family members who care for elderly relatives but need a break.
Robert Kilgour, chief executive of Dow Investments, which is behind the development, said: "The plan was always to do something different and we believe this kind of care hotel for permanent and short-term respite residents will prove very popular.
"It will be residential care for people who are reasonably fit and reasonably able as opposed to people who require round-the-clock nursing care and help with feeding and getting around."
The building is to feature a lounge area with patio doors leading to a garden at the rear, subject to planning consent.
The bedrooms are to range from 18 square metres to 32sq m, much bigger than 15sq m required to meet regulations.
Around 30 staff are to be employed at Glencairn, including a £50,000-a-year manager who is expected to have experience of the hospitality industry, and a head chef.
The care hotel, to be operated by ForthCare and due to be completed by March 2009, will feature a hotel-standard menu and residents will be able to invite friends and family for dinner.
Mr Kilgour, who previously founded and owned Four Seasons Health Care, said:
"It is a more personal domestic environment we want to create.
"It couldn't work everywhere but I believe Edinburgh is somewhere that this will work."
Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care, the umbrella group for private care home operators, said:
"This will work well for those who can afford to purchase their own care.
"But there does also need to be funding for those who cannot afford that."
