Council Urges Vicinity, Salta to Change Victoria Gardens Plans

The City of Yarra council has determined that plans for the $900-million re-development of Richmond’s Victoria Gardens shopping centre need more work.

Vicinity Centres and Salta Properties, joint owners and developers of the shopping centre, have put forward plans to redevelop the current centre, add affordable housing and incorporate an adjacent piece of land.

The 19-year-old shopping centre, 5km east of central Melbourne, is on part of the site at 53, 61-67, and 77-79 Burnley Street, 1-9 Doonside Street and 620 Victoria Street in Richmond.

Proposed plans designed by Cox Architects and NH Architecture include 1679 one, two and three-bedroom apartments in more than six buildings, some up to 17 storeys tall, plus 45,000sq m of new retail and commercial space.

In what is designed to be a “sustainable urban village”, the 5.2ha site will have 1ha of new public open space.

There would be 839 apartments in six towers in the Doonside precinct south of the centre with a fresh food market hall, more than 12,000sq m of retail and commercial space and more than 3500sq m of public open space.

More than 6200 sq m of public open space would be created in the River Boulevard precinct east of the shopping centre, connecting it to the Yarra River corridor.

It would have 840 apartments, though the number of residential buildings has not yet been finalised, with 6700sq m of retail, 26,600 of commercial office space and a 110-place childcare centre.

Parking for almost 1850 cars and 845 bicycles is included in the plans.

▲ A render of the proposed new Victoria Gardens precinct.

Vicinity and Salta also co-own the Doonside precinct, while Salta owns the River Boulevard precinct.

They are understood to have bought a site south of the shopping centre in 2019, with Corelogic property records showing that 1-9 Doonside Street was sold in August of that year for $13.85 million.

An amendment to the Yarra Planning Scheme, Amendment C307 for the use, development and subdivision of the site, and a planning permit application make up the submission to the Department of Transport and Planning.

It was referred through the Development Facilitation Program to the council for its opinion on whether it abided by the requirements of the development plan for the area.

The council decided that the plans needed more detail for the affordable housing component, there was not enough public open space with links into the project and an unnecessary request to exclude the plans from public space provision requirements.

The council also determined that changes were needed to the buildings’ facades and heights to mitigate overshadowing as determined by further analysis.

Its comments and recommendations will go to the Department of Transport and Planning for planning minister Sonya Kilkenny to use in her determination. 

Vicinity Centres owns 59 shopping centres across Australia worth a total of $14.5 billion. Its annual report reported Victoria Gardens was currently valued around $310 million.

The centre has 63 tenants including Coles, Kmart, Hoyts, Rebel Sport, Chemist Warehouse and JB Hi Fi, with a 38,000sq m gross lettable area and 2127 car parking spaces.

Richmond’s IKEA store is in the same complex, custom built for the retailer by Salta in 2003, when it completed the centre.

Vicinity acquired a half stake in the asset later that year.

The new proposed development is expected to create 680 jobs a year during construction and more than 3300 jobs once it is finished.

Retail spending has hit the highest it has been in 36 years with Urbis research showing that it grew by 11.3 per cent.