Greenfield Sites Shake ‘Uncool’ Reputation

A developer on one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing greenfield sites is incorporating city-design strategies to drive asset values and population growth.

Shifting away from the main-street, small-town plans to a mixed-use development mindset was key to shaking greenfield’s ‘uncool’ reputation.

This was the message from Sandhurst Retail and Logistics managing director Vivek Subramanian, speaking at Urbanity 23, The Urban Developer’s three-day event on the Gold Coast this week.

The group was developing in Wollert, which has grown 20 times its size since 2011 and was predicted to be home to 50,000 residents by 2031.

Central to the design of this suburb was a 9000sq m neighbourhood centre complete with swim school, amphitheatre, seating, courtyard, town square and anchor supermarket.

Subramanian said that during the past five years they went on a journey to rethink what retail town centres in greenfield developments could be.

“These greenfield areas are commonly and incorrectly perceived as less desirable places to live,” Subramanian said.

“They are not thought about as ‘cool enough’ to talk about in property and media circles.

“The majority of people are still moving to these outer areas and there’s an amazing opportunity with this growth.”

The main street design incorporated in many towns could lead to a dwell time of 10 to 15 minutes but using mixed-use strategies could increase this to closer to an hour.

“Essentially there is no focus on interaction or other uses, what this creates is a pantry environment,” Subramanian said.

“You drive to the carpark, walk straight into the supermarket, you buy your groceries and you go away and it takes 10 minutes.

“We believe this is not enough to create any type of community feel, and whilst it’s great for the supermarket it is terrible for us as owners of these assets.”

▲ SRL managing director Vivek Subramanian speaking at Urbanity 23.

Creating this suburban strategy was no easy feat for the diversified property group, which had to overcome the traditional Precinct Structure Plan.

“The PSP is meant to be a guide only, it’s more of a strategic plan that doesn’t need to dictate the outcome, however some councils and the Victorian Planning Authority literally apply this guide,” Subramanian said.

“A shift away from the main-street model into something that arguably is not groundbreaking, because it happens in the inner-city areas.

“It creates more centralisation of activity, it takes a focus away from just retail transactions to other uses and provides a genuine mixed use feel.”

SRL has a development pipeline worth $1.7 billion targeting prospective new growth areas in Victoria and Queensland.

The group recently listed two sites in Melbourne’s-fringe industrial precinct Epping, touted as one of the largest land releases this year.