Encore Apartments: Collaboration to Build a Community

It is with great pride that Sarah Constructions recently attended the successful grand opening of the new ECH “vertical village” on Smart Road in Modbury. Known as Encore Apartments, this vertical retirement village is the first-of-its-kind and features 77 two-bedroom independent living apartments as well as a Montessori Early Learning Centre on the ground floor for inter-generational interaction.

The development also features an on-site café, the fitout for which was largely informed and organised by Sarah Constructions in the absence of a tenant during the construction phase. The project was built to the Gold Standard Liveable Housing Guidelines, a requirement that the Sarah team ensured was front of mind for all involved parties. What’s more, the team was able to deliver the project ahead of the contractual completion date despite COVID-19 lockdowns, enabling ECH to license and occupy apartments on time and with confidence.

Leading the Way in Multi-Storey Residential Projects

Robert Maiolo, Senior Project Manager at Sarah Constructions, is proud to have led the Encore Apartments build. “This project is yet another positive example of Sarah’s build capability for multi-storey residential,” he said.

Alongside the $50 million flagship Carmelite project and Minda Master Plan build in Brighton, Encore Apartments secures Sarah Constructions’ position as the leading builder of complex and progressive multi-storey commercial living solutions in South Australia.

“Sarah Constructions had previously proven our ability as a leader in multi-storey residential construction. Encore Apartments has allowed us to further demonstrate this with another successful outcome, exceeding client expectations.”

Robert Maiolo, Senior Project Manager

Building Trust and Great Relationships

Just as the vertical village will create a community, it took a community of stakeholders and contractors to bring it together. “Undoubtedly, the key to the success of this project has been the people involved,” said Robert.

After making the commitment to develop on the Smart Road site, ECH sought to engage with key project partners. It was the early establishment of these partnerships, as well as ECH’s trust and support to deliver their vision, that set the team up for success.

“ECH led from the front in fostering a positive work environment from the outset, one where all parties could collaboratively work together towards common goals,” said Robert. This made it easy for Sarah’s subcontractors, specialists, and suppliers to contribute to the successful delivery of project outcomes.

Hannah Murphy, Acting Chief Executive at ECH, agreed that the successful project delivery revolved around the people involved. “Sarah chose the right people to be involved in the project. In fact, ECH chose Sarah based on the people they would be putting forward, including Walter Brooke and RLB cost consultants who were critical to the selection. We trusted the team and they did exactly what they said they would do.”

Constructing to Liveable Housing Guidelines

Encore Apartments has been designed and constructed to the Liveable Housing Design Gold Standard, with each apartment offering high quality features for residents to live independently and comfortably as part of a community.

As an essential criteria that apartments adhered to these guidelines, Sarah engaged specialist subcontractor Able Access Design to ensure that design and construction was compliant throughout the process. Hannah Murphy, Acting Chief Executive at ECH, said early design involvement from Sarah was key to this process.

“Our focus initially was to look with an individual unit perspective. However, through Sarah’s involvement we got accreditation for the entire development. They took the big picture view and looked at all aspects such as transitions between areas on the site, right from civil works. It was this foundation work that established the ability for liveable housing.”

Hannah summarises her experience seeing this project come to life: “from the start, we decided to put people at the centre of the build. Sarah Constructions translated that not just into a beautiful building but into a community. To see that flow through has been incredibly rewarding; the team being proud, the residents moving in and enjoying the space, seeing the café and the Montessori Early Learning Centre come together. It has given me an incredible sense of joy and pride seeing this all take shape.”

To learn more about this or our other retirement living projects, contact us today.