Local care home announces 2.8m redevelopment
21st Oct 2009
Blair Lodge, Bangor, a locally owned care home for adults with learning disabilities, has reopened following an extensive 12 month redevelopment. Costing 2.8m and transforming the home into a modern 28 bedroom centre, Blair Lodge now boosts top of the range facilities for its residents, all of whom receive specialised care services from staff. The extension to the centre created 20 new jobs.
Situated on the Bryansburn Road, Blair Lodge is owned by mother and son team Rosemary and Bruce Armstrong. Working to a strict build schedule with an intensive work rate, the home now offers many eco friendly processes and hopes to achieve an A* efficiency rating, another plus for residents.
Rosemary Armstrong of Blair Lodge commented: The new building provides a market leading facility in the Bangor area, with the most up to date facilities contained within an environment needed to accommodate our clients who need specialist care.
The extended home has created new jobs for the area and also safeguards the employment of the existing 15 employees, most of who reside within the local community, she added. Blair Lodge was established in October 1991. It has a sister unit in Holywood, as well as providing specialist home care in a domiciliary setting.
Jeff Aiken, the North Down Senior Manager at Ulster Bank says that the bank is very pleased to support Blair Lodge. Our work with Blair Lodge highlights that investments like this offers a series of benefits to many different groups. Not only will the residents and staff enjoy living and working in this modern state of the art environment, the families of residents and the local community will note the results of the project.
Ulster Bank's 250M fund for SMEs was announced at the beginning of February and has provided important funding to support hundreds of firms in the current economic climate. In addition to providing debt finance, the new funds offer businesses access to other options to help them manage their capital and cashflow. The fund offers customers a wide range of financial support including unsecured small business loans up to 25,000 at competitive rates and trading business loans which allow customers to postpone capital repayments. It also includes monies available through the governments Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.
Customers who wish to avail of Ulster Bank's 250M Regional Fund or other lending and support initiatives, including the EIB loan*, should contact their local branch or business centre or visit www.ulsterbank.co.uk.