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Newly-established Vivere hopes to have 200 extra care homes around Edinburgh over the next five-to-seven years.

Vivere is a joint venture of Probitas, a specialist in extra care and senior living homes, and Stephenson Group, a contractor and mixed-use investor-developer.

Starting its portfolio, Vivere has acquired from St George’s School the 2.2 acre Lansdowne House site on Coltbridge Terrace in Edinburgh. It plans to transform this into the brand’s first community of extra care homes in the city.

Vivere plan to invest £25m in the refurbishment and restoration of the listed buildings on the site and the construction of the new community. 

Subject to planning consent, the Lansdowne House scheme will provide a combination of refurbished heritage and newly built homes, with communal lounges and amenities within the main Victorian villa on the site, which was originally built in 1875 as Coltbridge Hall.

As part of its expansion plan, Vivere is looking to acquire other sites in Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife.

Vivere is led by co-founding director Scott Curran, an architect who was born in Edinburgh and has worked for Balfour Beatty, Mace and others.

The other founding directors are Beatrix Lehnert, who owns Probitas Developments (of which Scott Curran also used to be a shareholder) and Martin Stephenson, chairman of the Stephenson Group.

For the Lansdowne House site in Edinburgh, Vivere has appointed CDA Edinburgh as architect, along with landscape architects Rankinfraser, and Edinburgh based planning and heritage consultant Montagu Evans to help prepare proposals for the scheme.

Scott Curran said: “It is our aim to create a portfolio of high-quality extra care living communities in Scotland, commencing in Edinburgh. These will be high quality homes, alongside on-site amenities and tailored care services to suit resident’s needs. Our aim is for our residents to live longer, not grow old. The provision of extra care communities will help to relieve local pressures on NHS services, as well as providing homes to the hugely undersupplied housing sector in Scotland.” 

Martin Stephenson said: “Scotland, like the rest of the UK, has an overwhelming demand to provide housing with care and services to a large and fast-growing older demographic, but with the key difference for Scotland currently being the huge lack of supply of these tailored homes and services within the housing sector. With its development plans Vivere aims to provide a quality product to the market and help to meet the demands in the sector.”

Beatrix Lehnert added: “The forming of Vivere represents significant new long-term investment and job creation in the Edinburgh economy.  Alongside delivering best-in-class extra care schemes, our approach is to partner with Scottish businesses, suppliers and operators who are local leaders in their field to provide the care services and amenities for our new communities. This way Vivere will help to create new jobs and investment in Edinburgh alongside the construction jobs generated by the building of our new projects.”

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