The new centre is in the former Mercy Centre, a 19-year-old rest-home previously owned by the Sisters of Mercy's McAuley Trust, which has been purchased by McGlynn Homes.
Owner Tim Hannagan said the centre will add to the six homes the organisation runs in Invercargill, Mosgiel, Dunedin and Oamaru.
He did not wish to say how much money was involved in the purchase or proposed changes to the building.
Manager Sue Connor, who was passionate about the homes' resident-centred rather than medical model of care, had seen the need for such a facility, he said.
It was a challenging project, but Mrs Connor loved a challenge, he said.
Mrs Connor said the existing McGlynn Homes, which each house six people, were designed to empower residents (they are not referred to as patients ).
The new centre in Mitchell Ave would have a similar focus, with support being provided to the level wanted by the residents.
"It is very much about the individual person and what their needs are and about that person making their own decisions about their own care. A lot of people say it, but they don't do it."
She expects that some of the residents will be referred to the home after treatment with the Isis Centre at Wakari Hospital.
This would allow people to come out of an acute rehabilitation service into a more homely, less medically-structured environment before they returned home.
McGlynn will be working closely with other providers in order to ensure residents had access to the care and support required.
As well as referrals from centres such as Isis, the centre will offer respite care for under-65-year-olds who, at the moment, may have no choice but to go to aged-care homes.
Placing such people in aged care had an adverse emotional and psychological impact on them, she said.
The centre would be offering individual programmes to enable people to "actually enjoy life".
Mrs Connor expects the centre's work will also cover people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis who may want to come in for a six-week programme to strengthen their leg muscles.
The centre will have a flat within it and residents of that would buy and cook their own food, and have their children to stay, if that was what was wanted.
A gymnasium space would be made in the site of the existing chapel.
Mrs Connor said she was keen to show the Ministry of Health what could be achieved in such a setting.
Strictly speaking, residents who received ministry funding for their disability did not receive the same level of rehabilitation funding as those covered by ACC, but the centre would not be distinguishing between the two types of funding in its care of residents.
She is not expecting to find the beds hard to fill, having already had a referral from Christchurch.
Mr Hannagan said further expansion of McGlynn's residential homes, which began in 2004, was being considered for Invercargill and Central Otago.
