Over the last 11 years we have met some remarkable individuals who have invested themselves into building great village communities for their residents.
Chas Jacobsen at The Village Glen, David Torrisi at Fraser Shores and Jonathan Forster at Balmoral Gardens come to mind. All men that have dedicated every waking hour to creating more than what is in the contract or marketing material.
But to my mind the most unique village operators are Judy Clarkson and her daughter Jodie Mitchell. They have two villages, Blue Hills Residences (opened in 2002) and Blue Hills Rise, diagonally across the road from each other in Cranbourne (opened in 2009), 45 kilometres SE of Melbourne.
Judy and Jodie’s hallmark is their vision and preparedness to over-invest today to deliver a better result for residents tomorrow. When I first met them in 2006, they were building a large aged care facility in a corner of Blue Hills Residences – against all the then current thinking which said that villages were a ‘lifestyle’ option where you shouldn’t be confronted by old, frail people.
Once the aged care facility was built they sold it to Homestyle Aged Care. The aim was to get a professional service in for their residents – but they had to take the financial risk first. They are repeating this formula at Blue Hills Rise as we speak.
They did the same with their chapel. Actually it’s a freestanding church which they had ordained by all religions and is now used by residents and locals for services, weddings and all other celebrations.
They didn’t need the aged care home or the chapel for sales but they thought it was what their residents would want – eventually.
They just have a great resident-focused philosophy.
I bring this all up now because last November they opened a full shopping centre at a cost of close to $20M that they built metres down the road because that is what was needed by village residents and the local community. A satellite view shows it is adjacent to open fields and paddocks.
Called ‘Shopping on Clyde neighbourhood centre’, nine months later it has just passed 8,000 shoppers a day.
Judy and Jodie purchased the land in 2005. Their architects state they over-invested in the quality of the design and build. They negotiated with council for years to have an enclosed shopping centre rather than strip retail because “It’s windy, it’s cold. It's raw land and there is nothing to break up the wind”.
With this focus they attracted a Coles supermarket, McDonald’s, a Coles Extra petrol station and 19 specialty stores to the centre. They manage the shopping centre themselves. Next is a medical centre with 10 doctors and a tavern.
Judy started in business 50 years ago with a child care centre in the front rooms of her home. She now has five local child care centres managed by her second daughter Sharon Smith. They offer a remarkable supportive and educational service – see the details HERE.
Blue Hills Residences is 220 units and Blue Hills Rise has 203 units completed with another 87 to be built over the next 12 to 18 months.
Now aged 77, the local newspaper refer to Judy Clarkson as ‘Cranbourne’s loveable answer to Gina Rinehart’. It’s a compliment!
Picture: Judy Clarkson, the City of Casey Mayor Sam Azziz and Jodie Mitchell.
