Belong Care Village

After difficulty finding a suitably sized and located site for a specialist care village in Newcastle-under-Lyme, award-winning care provider Belong tasked Prime with delivering the seemingly impossible. As a specialist development and investment partner, we quickly secured a site and devised investment solutions using multiple funding sources.

After difficulty finding a suitably sized and located site for a specialist care village in Newcastle-under-Lyme, award-winning care provider Belong tasked Prime with delivering the seemingly impossible. As a specialist development and investment partner, we quickly secured a site and devised investment solutions using multiple funding sources.

From the outset, Prime was committed to delivering solutions that brought benefits to the wider community, as well as the residents, visitors and staff using the facilities. The result – the transformation of a once neglected area into a vibrant facility, supporting an ageing population.

A landscape designer was brought on board during the design process to develop a scheme which is in keeping with this type of development. The sensory garden comprised of paths and lawns which are dementia friendly in nature, leading to seating, planting beds and a pergola.

Belong villages are vibrant community facilities, open to the wider public. As a specialist investment and development partner, Prime proved to be the perfect match for this £13.5m project requiring complex land acquisition and funding models.

Tasked with finding a large piece of land, close to town, with good access to public transport links, we utilised our experience in complex land assembly to bring together three separate but adjoining pieces of land in a high-profile location.  At the heart of the assembled site stood an abandoned Grade II listed building. With a unique insight into funding streams, and with the support of Belong, Prime secured a £1.8m Heritage Lottery Funding grant – to support a transformation of the space into a public facility to celebrate the heritage of the local area and provide specialist resources and services for people living with dementia.

A complex site doesn’t come without its challenges – something Prime helped to simplify for Belong. From archaeological surveys and contamination issues, through to handling the complex legal and ownership requirements – we used our extensive development experience to remove the headache of each and every challenge.

Prime identified that one of the key factors in the success of this project was the support of the local community. As a result, Prime worked closely with Belong on a series of local public consultations and engagements – enabling the community to help shape the plans. The success of these engagements ensured community support, avoided objections to the planning submission and laid a good foundation for future marketing of the care village.

As an investment partner, we could minimise Belong’s risk and capital outlay on the development by combining multiple funding models. In addition to the lottery funding, the development of the care village’s living facilities has been funded by Prime and let to Belong on a long lease.

Now complete, the Belong village retains close links with its community. It brings new care services, accommodation, amenities and jobs to Newcastle-under-Lyme while providing much-needed regeneration to an area of land which had been derelict for a decade.