Construction of a $33 million care village for the elderly, including those living with dementia, is expected to begin next September.

The first stage of the Hawthorndale Care Village will provide 13 residential care homes for 86 residents and 10 independent living retirement villas, set around village streets and landscaped gardens.

Modelled on the world-leading Dutch dementia village, De Hogeweyk, the village will be built on the site of the former Hawthorndale School on Tay Street in Invercargill.

The design has recently been streamlined to bring the estimated costs down, in the face of building cost escalations.

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Paddy O’Brien, a member of the Hawthorndale Care Village Charitable Trust working group, says: "We're very happy that our project team have been able to successfully rework the design without losing any of the benefits of the village environment concept to deliver a world class vision of aged care."

This next design phase is expected to be completed by November, he said.

Christchurch-based Foley Group Architecture is designing the project.

Architect Rob Campbell said the emphasis remained on delivering living and recreational areas that connect and offer a calm sense of engagement within the village.

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"The vision is to create assisted living which replicate everyday life as normal as possible, within a safe, secure and stimulating environment," he said.

The Hawthorndale project is expected to generate 300 jobs during its construction phase and once open create 11 new jobs and retain 87 jobs from the Calvary Hospital transition.

Construction Project Manager Nick Hamlin, of Maxis Projects, said they will be calling for registrations of interest from contractors in civil, residential and commercial construction, for the September 2022 start date.

Meanwhile, a fundraising event to help the project reach its $33m target has been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

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More than 200 people were confirmed to listen to former Ireland rugby coach Joe Schmidt and professional rugby referee Craig Joubert talk at Mossburn Community Centre.

It was postponed from its original August 20 date, but has now been fully cancelled.

"We had hoped to reschedule but haven’t been unable to find an alternative date this year that works for the speakers who were giving their time for free," said project working group chair Sarah Hannan.