Rooke announcement to be made on Tuesday after three-year delay in construction

The Minister for Health will make a detailed announcement on the Rooke building on Tuesday.

Gemma Arias-Vasquez said she will set out one of the most significant investments in elderly care that Gibraltar has ever made. 

The project was first announced in 2020 and was expected to be completed by the summer of 2023. However, it's been beset with delays and rising costs.

Opposition questions have been raised in Parliament on numerous occasions, and GBC has also sought answers on how the facility will be operated, the building's fire readiness, and the overall cost of the project - but these have gone unanswered.

The Health Minister has invited the media to a press call next week on the Rooke  building, but has issued a statement today because the GSD had provided an interview to the Chronicle. Gemma Arias- Vasquez says meetings with residents, their families, staff and the relevant trade unions have been diarised for some time. 

She said those meetings will take place ahead of the public announcement, so that the people most directly affected will hear the detail first. 

The project was first announced six years ago, as an innovative and cost-effective way of providing a new home for the elderly.

It was expected to be completed in the summer of 2023, but the construction was beset with problems and mounting costs.  

The Rooke Elderly Care Home was originally described as a 170-room facility and was part of the Government's National Economic Plan. The building used modular construction, with the units manufactured in China and shipped to Gibraltar. The foundations, structural elements and other components were built or supplied locally.

280 modules arrived on the Great Faith container ship in January 2023, with completion expected by May or June that year.

Questions arose about who the tenants would be, after Mount Alvernia residents initially showed little interest in moving.

In February 2024, the Government told Parliament the building was privately owned and would be privately operated. On that basis, the Government declined to answer GBC's questions.

The building was originally being developed through Community Supplies & Services Limited, but Rooke Holdings Limited was later established as the owner or vehicle for the facility.

A new completion date was said to be sometime in 2024, but there were delays involving supplies for the non-modular parts of the building.

Meanwhile, the costs had risen to £38 million, with £35 million coming from the Gibraltar Savings Bank. 

Still, the building remained unused.

Sir Joe Bossano said there were problems between contractors and suppliers, and elements of the building had been incorrectly designed.

The next completion date that came and went was July last year. GBC learned that two UK companies had expressed an interest in either purchasing or renting the facility from the Government.

A Certificate of Fitness was finally granted last August but still, no operational agreement was announced.

Earlier this year, the Government revealed that 57 Mount Alvernia residents or family members, out of 120, had expressed an interest in moving to Rooke.

Rooke Holdings invited an expression of interest from organisations to occupy, operate and manage the facility in a commercial agreement initially for 5 years, with the option to extend it for 25 years. 

The Chief Minister said an announcement would be made when the time was right.

This latest Government statement will no doubt be welcome after all the delays, but there's no avoiding the questions that still remain unanswered.