70 Jobs for Harrogate after Groundbreaking £5m Property and Football Deal Goes Ahead
Work has begun on building a new £5m national centre of excellence for dementia care in Harrogate after a groundbreaking deal between one of Yorkshire’s oldest football clubs and a local property and healthcare group got the go ahead.
The collaboration between Harrogate Railway FC and Vida Healthcare, part of Harrogate-based The Rycroft Group, will see the creation of over 70 new jobs in what is believed to be one of the town’s largest single job creations announced this year.
Leeds-based Projex Building Solutions and PDR Construction have been appointed project manager and building contractor for the scheme, which is due for completion in autumn 2012.
The jobs will all be based at Vida Hall, a new 71-bed specialist dementia centre which is being built on land previously forming part of the club’s eleven-acre ground at Starbeck in Harrogate.
Vida’s managing director, James Rycroft, has described the new care home as a much needed facility for Yorkshire, saying it will be something the whole region can be proud of:
“This is a unique approach to a development and a win-win situation for all parties. There is no reason why this type of agreement cannot be rolled out nationally in cases where clubs have excess land and are facing financial difficulties.”
“Latest figures from the Alzheimer’s Society show that cases of dementia in Yorkshire and Humberside are expected to increase by 32% in the next 10 years. Vida Healthcare has a very entrepreneurial approach which will be reflected in this exciting new facility.”
At the same time, Harrogate Railway FC can look forward to a new club house, three 3G five-a-side pitches and a junior football pitch. These state-of-the art facilities will also enable the seventy-year old club to generate new income streams in order to secure its long term future.
According to Steve Morphet of Projex Building Solutions, Harrogate Railway fans will be able to start enjoying some of the new facilities as early as February:
“The new club house will be the first facility to be completed in February and we will then be phasing in other facilities and pitch improvement works over the spring.”
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