Construction of a $132 million aged care expansion at Farrer is scheduled to begin next month following a year of delays in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal gave final approval to the development late last year with minor amendments.
Goodwin Village Farrer was built in 1977 and will nearly double in size when the staged project is completed.
Goodwin chief executive Sue Levy said the Woden Valley had the highest percentage of aged people per capita in the ACT.
"Due to the age and current limitations with our current site we need to redevelop," Ms Levy said.
"We have a 60-bed facility there and 73 independent living units. The demand for both is what's driven Goodwin to redevelop the site to pretty much double its size.
"We're looking at a residential aged care facility of 120 beds and 150 independent living units."
Ms Levy said the staged redevelopment would enable services to continue for existing residents during the construction period of 4-5 years.
"Nobody will be requested to move off site or relocate," she said.
"As each building comes online we'll move our existing residents into new accommodation."
An objector to the development, Eric Glass, said he was disappointed with the tribunal's 2016 decision, which only required minor changes to height and scale.
"We're looking at a high-density residential development here in the heart of a low-level suburb," he said.
"We put the argument to the tribunal this was contrary to the Territory Plan in terms of concentrating high-density developments close to major thoroughfares."
Mr Glass said objectors would make a final throw of the dice on Friday when the Supreme Court hears an appeal regarding the removal of trees.
"Our argument is it hasn't been properly approved," he said.
"If the court rules in our favour, that would mean they won't be able to start the development because they have to remove the trees to start with the building."
The recently released Productivity Commission report on aged care services showed Canberra had the longest delay for people entering residential care after receiving approval from an aged care assessment team.
Only 36.6 per cent of those assessed in 2014-15 entered residential aged care within three months compared with 52 per cent nationally.
Canberra also had the most hospital patient days used by aged care-type patients, at 22.9 compared with a national average of 10.
Ms Levy said aged care providers were expanding services across the ACT and this would need to continue.
"Further investment will be needed. Canberra has the highest demand and will have the highest demand for aged care services in Australia," she said.
"Canberra is growing and a lot of older people are coming back into the ACT to be closer to health-care facilities and hospitals.
"Goodwin is not the only one redeveloping. There are quite a few major providers in the ACT that are redeveloping in order to cope with the demand."
Ms Levy said Goodwin was adapting its services to meet consumer demand and changing demographics.
Government data released on Tuesday shows Australia has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, at 84.4 years for women and 80.3 years for men.
"What will continue to happen is that people coming into residential aged care will be older and frailer so the high-care clinical needs will be more prevalent than what they are now," Ms Levy said.
"We will almost be operating what's called a sub-acute health care facility that will involve high clinical needs as well as palliative care.
"Dementia is prevalent and we will also have a purpose-built memory-support unit at Farrer to be able to manage those who have high clinical needs with their dementia."
Council on the Ageing ACT executive director Jenny Mobbs said COTA welcomed expansion of services, but more was needed to meet demand.
"It's not keeping up with the needs of Canberra people at the moment and the cost is quite prohibitive for some people," she said.
"It's also important that people have aged care in areas where they have been living.
"Some of the new developments are in outer areas. People like to age in place, which is an important issue for older people. They know the social network around them, where the shops are and how to get around that district.
"That's gradually being eroded with some of the big developments that are happening on the outskirts of Canberra."
Ms Mobbs said COTA believed governments should be doing more to ensure a wider range of aged care services and more affordable options.
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