HeraldBupa to build care home on landmark siteBUPA is to build an £8 million care home for people with special nursing requirements in Glasgow, on the campus of what was once the only training centre in the country for Catholic teachers.
The healthcare giant is understood to have signed a deal, subject to planning permission, with developer Muse Developments to buy a portion of the former St Andrew’s College campus in Bearsden. Teacher training ceased in the late 1990s when the college was sold by Glasgow Caledonian to Glasgow University, which now offers teacher training for Catholic teachers at its main campus in the west end of the city.
The concrete cube-style 1960s residential buildings on the site of the St Andrew’s College campus, which are A-listed and overlook much of the city, are now set to be demolished next year so that the care home can open in 2012. It follows several years of negotiations with Historic Scotland and East Dunbartonshire Council, following local protests earlier in the decade.
Bupa would not discuss its plans with the Sunday Herald, but the 62-bed home is expected to be at least partly devoted to patients with dementia.
Steve Turner, Scottish regional director of Manchester-based Muse, said he was working with Bupa to submit an application for full planning permission in the New Year. This application will also include 120 residential units and 32 social houses, which Muse will build in conjunction with a joint venture partner. The total size of the investment is expected to be around £35m.
“Muse is not investing in the care home,” Turner said. “Bupa will buy the site and implement the project themselves.”
He said that the residential plans would probably only stretch to around 90 houses, despite the application, since plans to build blocks of flats as part of the package have been scrapped. The intention is to concentrate on upmarket homes with a value of £300,000 to £500,000.
Turner said: “If you stand on the top of the hill you have the Campsies on one side, you have the city and you can see right down the Clyde estuary to the Cumbraes islands. We have always been very enthused by the site.”