Jewish Care has unveiled plans for a £22 million project to overhaul its community centre in Redbridge, including the addition of 50 independent living flats. The current premises will be demolished and replaced with a modern facility incorporating a 700-capacity auditorium.
A planning application will be submitted next month for the two-phase project, which is expected to be completed for the start of 2021.
To help fund it, the charity will borrow around £14 million and sell off around a quarter of the land for a commercial development of up to eight town houses. The land sale is likely to fetch £1.5 million.
The Sinclair House building was opened in 1969 in the heyday of the local community. Although it still serves around 1,000 people a week, needs have changed and the Jewish population has shrunk to 10,000 in the local council area, based on 2011 Census figures.
However, taking in what Jewish Care describes as Greater Redbridge, including Chigwell, Loughton, Waltham Forest and Havering, the overall figure is estimated at 17,000.
The social care mission is now the dominant part for us
Addressing a meeting of key stakeholders at the centre on Monday, Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris said that rents for the independent living flats would reflect the local market. "In a sense, [we will]use the rent to pay back the mortgage."
After other contributions, Jewish Care will need to raise £3 million from the community by March 2018, when building work is scheduled to begin, and another £1 million beyond that date.
"There will be a fundraising strategy to go to people, primarily in north-east London, to raise that money," Mr Morris said. "We are committed to seeing this happen.
"The building is tired and not fit for purpose and we need to redevelop it. Also, independent living is something the community needs. People have said we've concentrated a lot on north-west London, so now is the time to focus on Redbridge."
Ian Grimes, the charity's property director, conceded that "in an ideal world where Jewish Care has unlimited resources", the project would be developed in a different Redbridge location, nearer to where more Jews lived.
But "it would become unaffordable if we moved. We have to make use of all our existing resources."
Neil Taylor, director of community services, added that the rebuild reflected the new reality of Jewish Care provision - that "the social care mission has now become the dominant part of what we do.
"The demographic is ageing. Whilst the children are moving out, older people are staying, so that's the obligation we have."
Jewish Care was "the only game in town. What we do here will re-energise much of the area."
The project had been driven by a desire to "create a scheme that can enhance the sustainability of this site. "We believe that the independent living does that - and responds to changing needs."
The charity has experience of integrating such accommodation into a major project. Selig Court is part of the charity's Golders Green complex and has accommodated around 45 people in independent living since 2011. Some of the Redbridge apartments will be available at reduced rents.
There will be 18 one-bed and 32 twobed flats, designed for "older people who have care needs but don't want to go into residential care," Mr Taylor added. "The average age of going into residential care is late 80s and 80 per cent of that population has some form of dementia. Independent living is filling that gap between sheltered housing and residential care."
Mr Grimes pledged: "We will look to make this as good as Selig Court, if not better."
Mr Taylor would not be drawn on whether the project would bring people back to Redbridge, describing it as "about sustaining the community, but more importantly, about enhancing the quality of services available to people."
If all goes to schedule, the new community centre will open in June 2019.
Construction of the independent living site will start immediately afterwards, with residents expected in January 2021. The plans were also explained at an open meeting on Wednesday.
