A leading UK care home provider has scooped a top national property award for the design of its 21st home.
The family-owned Colten Group won the prestigious Knight Frank Care Home Design Award for Bourne View, an art deco-influenced home opened in Poole, Dorset, earlier this year.
A judging panel of healthcare property experts favoured the home from a shortlist of four finalists because of the way it blends innovative design features for modern living with the highest levels of care provision, including 24/7 nurse-led care.
The judges’ vote followed an inspection and tour of the home’s sumptuous dining rooms, en suite bedrooms, guest suites, piano lounge, hair salon, spa, hotel-style foyer and rooftop garden.
Colten Directors Rick Otten and George Colwell were presented with the award at Knight Frank’s annual Healthcare and Senior Living Property Dinner at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square.
Rick said: “This is the first time we have been nominated for a Knight Frank award so to make it to the final shortlist and then go on and actually win is amazing.
“The award honours the whole package of work involved in planning, designing, building and fitting out a beautiful care home.
“Many people were involved from inception, through construction, to interiors, landscaping and finishing. We’re thrilled to be recognised nationally.”
As with the Colten Group’s other 20 care homes in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and Sussex, Bourne View was built by the development and construction arm Colten Developments, and is operated by sister company Colten Care.
Rick added: “The award is testament to the success of a whole in-house team effort and the unique synergy we have in the private care home market in being the only operator to own, build and run its homes. The result is that we are able to build state-of-the-art facilities such as Bourne View which incorporate best practice and stand-out quality.”
Congratulating the Colten Group on winning the award, Julian Evans, Head of Healthcare at Knight Frank, said: “Our award categories afford our judges the scope to appropriately categorise the improving innovation and design features of care facilities.
“The panel inspected each of the finalists’ care facilities in order to select the winners. Once again, there were some fantastic nominations, and the competition was fierce.”
Founded in 1896, Knight Frank is a London-headquartered property consultancy with a global network of 500 offices in 60 countries. It has more than 19,000 employees and handles property worth more than £500 billion annually. Healthcare is one of its divisions alongside commercial, agricultural and residential.
Knight Frank’s Healthcare and Senior Living Property Dinner and its 2020 Luxury Care Home Guide, featuring Bourne View, are sponsored by private bank and wealth management company Coutts.
Residents, families and community contacts at Bourne View currently score the home a perfect ‘ten out of ten’ on the national public review site Carehome.co.uk. The home is one of only four among 18,000 care homes in the UK to achieve a perfect score.