Riverlee Starts Work on $100m New Epping Medical Build

Construction has begun on Riverlee’s $100-million New Epping Medical building,.

Kane Constructions is on site for this latest stage of a much larger health and regeneration play at Epping in Melbourne’s north.

Rising beside Northern Private Hospital, which opened in February 2024, the six-storey project will add 8200sq m of specialist consulting, allied health and medical space.

Riverlee said the building is part of the wider New Epping Health Hub, a $1 billion, 7ha healthcare precinct within its broader $2-billion New Epping masterplanned community. 

The developer said New Epping would generate $4.7 billion in economic benefits for Victoria and support up to 3700 jobs across healthcare, research and commercial sectors.

The site at 215 Cooper Street is within Riverlee’s 51ha New Epping precinct, a redevelopment of former quarry and landfill land. 

The City of Whittlesea said the Epping Renewal Site Development Plan, approved in January 2023, guides future use across 215, 229, 255, 315W and 325C Cooper Street for employment, health services, housing and open space.

▲ A rendering of the six-storey New Epping Medical building now under construction next to Northern Private Hospital in Melbourne’s north.

The site has been moving through delivery in stages, with Stage 1, approved by the planning minister in December, 2020. 

It created sites for 151 social and affordable housing apartments, a private hospital and a medical centre.

Apartments have also been built and the first stage of Northern Private Hospital opened in early 2024.

Riverlee development director David Lee said the project was designed to respond to mounting pressure on health infrastructure across Melbourne’s northern growth corridor.

▲ New Epping Medical will overlook public open space within Riverlee’s broader 51ha redevelopment at 215 Cooper Street.

“Melbourne’s northern growth corridor is one of Australia’s fastest-growing, placing increasing pressure on the local healthcare system: rapid population expansion, combined with an ageing population and increasing chronic health conditions is driving demand for new health infrastructure,” he said.

“The New Epping Health Hub and specific buildings like New Epping Medical have been designed to alleviate this mounting pressure and bring much-needed medical services to the region.”

Population growth underpins the pitch. 

Riverlee said Whittlesea and Hume are home to about 479,000 residents and projected to grow by more than 44 per cent by 2036, while Whittlesea alone adds about 8000 residents a year. 

▲ A masterplan of the New Epping Health Hub, showing how the medical building fits alongside the private hospital, public hospital and future health uses.

Profile.id data based on ABS figures put Whittlesea’s estimated resident population at 253,204 at 30 June 2024, up 3.34 per cent on a year earlier.

Health demand is already visible next door. 

Northern Health said Northern Hospital Epping has Victoria’s busiest emergency department, treating more than 110,000 patients a year. 

Riverlee said New Epping Medical will connect directly to Ramsay Health Care’s $133-million Northern Private Hospital, placing it within a broader 20ha public-private health ecosystem around the existing hospital campus.

Occupiers are already committing to the project.

Icon Cancer Centre announced in December 2024 it had signed a 15-year lease for a 775sq m tenancy where it plans to deliver radiation oncology services. 

Riverlee’s construction announcement also named Lumus Imaging as a committed occupier, with additional space flagged for GP, dental and physiotherapy practices.

Ramsay said Northern Private Hospital includes 70 beds, four operating theatres, a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, day chemotherapy, sleep study services, pathology, pharmacy and radiology.