Downsized 156-Apartment ACT Shopping Centre Project Tabled

The owners of a Canberra shopping centre are having another shot at approval for a 156-apartment development on the site. 

Casey Market Town owners KG Capital and JEGA, through their Worth Street vehicle, are proposing an eight-storey commercial and residential block on the 5478sq m site. 

The project was originally filed in January, 2023 and proposed new uses, including 219 apartments, for an undeveloped site at the shopping centre, also known as Casey Group Centre. 

Updated plans have now been submitted after the older plans were refused by the ACT planning authority, and a subsequent application for reconsideration maintained the refusal after more than 100 public submissions opposing the plans.

The owners then began proceedings at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT), where a mediated outcome was agreed and the previous decisions were set aside, handing it back to the planning authority. 

The new plans, designed by Cox Architecture, cut the number of apartments by14 from the most recent iteration of 170. 

▲ The amended form is two and three storeys less than originally proposed.

The apartments would comprise studios, one, two and three bedrooms, and 13 commercial units are also planned. 

The make-up of the non-residential components are yet to be decided.

KG Capital suggested that it would allow the occupants to take advantage of the existing amenity of the shopping cente.

Casey Market Town is 3km from Gungahlin town centre, itself about 14km north of the Canberra CBD, and is described as the main retail group centre servicing adjoining suburbs.

Canberra’s market is on the boil with development industry in a rush rushing to keep up. The likes of major residential sites including JWLand’s six-building project at Braddon and a $250-million build-to-rent Fender Katsalidis project, which has secured design approval. all in the mix.