Innovation

A $60 million shopping centre project is the first step to creating the Armstrong Creek Town Centre, which will become the retail, leisure and entertainment hub of Geelong’s south, developer Andrew Welsh said.

Mr Welsh, a former Essendon footballer, heads property developer Welsh Group, which recently acquired its latest property at 500-540 Surf Coast Highway, allowing it to start construction on the shopping centre.

The first stage has a Coles supermarket and 25 speciality shops, including cafes and restaurants.

Bulk earthworks had already begun, with shopping centre construction to start in coming weeks.

The developer would also rebuild Burvilles Rd, which separates the town centre and Geelong Lutheran College.

The centre is expected to open in late 2020, along with fast food and bulk goods retail outlets fronting the Surf Coast Highway, which are the subject of a planning application with the council.

Welsh Group owns 40ha of land within the Armstrong Creek Town Centre precinct.

“The Armstrong Creek Town Centre will be the first major commercial project in this region delivered by Welsh Group and will include a range of retail, leisure and entertainment, residential and community facilities, bringing an array of services and employment opportunities,” Mr Welsh said.

He said Armstrong Creek Town Centre was modelled on similar projects at Rouse Hill in Sydney and Springfield in Brisbane.

“It’s a suburb within a town centre. It’s not your traditional drive in straight into a car park and retail, it’s a mixed use suburb within Armstrong Creek,” he said.

“It’s exciting to see the quality that’s going to be there to make a destination that’s not just retail but community services, the library and residential components.”

Mr Welsh said other precinct landowners were planning retirement living, while the council owned the site for the future train station and a surrounding civic hub.

The mixed use component was a 15-year project to be built in stages timed as the population grows, he said.

“Once more population comes there are hotels, serviced apartments, we’re talking to a couple of different groups around university co-sharing in areas, there is large format locations for bigger footprint home uses, so it’s a huge longterm project,” he said.

“Stage one will initially service about 58,000 people and provide in excess of 1100 ongoing jobs, with the suburb set to rapidly increase to over 110,000 residents by 2036.”

Welsh Group has appointed Colliers International agents Mike Crittenden and Adam Lester to manage leasing for the shopping centre and freestanding sites.

Written by Peter Farago – Published in the Geelong Advertiser 3rd May 2019