Summerset chief executive Julian Cook said it has purchased 9ha at the old Meadow Mushrooms site on Springs Rd in Prebbleton.
It is planning to build a village with about 290 homes, including villas, apartments and aged care facilities. It would also have a dementia centre on site.
The village is expected to cost about $150 million.
Mr Cook said it is needed due to the number of people aged 75 and over in the Selwyn district forecast to increase by about 80 per cent over the next decade.
He said the next steps are to continue the design work and apply for the resource consent.
"Selwyn came up and then Prebbleton came up as somewhere that we thought there was a bit of a shortage of quality retirement village age care.
"Prebbleton was identified very quickly as somewhere we thought it would work really well."
Summerset already operates retirement villages in Christchurch at Wigram, Casebrook and Avonhead.
