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."
The full article contains 403 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
