[+] To Market, To Market: Queen Vic’s New Era Dawns

“I’m going to be able to borrow a book and sit in the pub and read it!” The pub in question is Brick Lane Shed at the Queen Victoria Markets, while the library is part of the City of Melbourne's new Munro Community Hub- and the would-be reader is the Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp. What’s making her plan possible is the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal Program. It's been 145 years in the making, but the wraps are starting to come off the city's beloved Queen Vic Markets as it undergoes a metamorphosis of urban renewal. It was dealt some cruel blows during the Covid-19 pandemic with some 350 stalls closing down, but the promise of 24,000 residents moving into the precinct provides green shoots of hope for the mixed-use precinct's future. It is now nearly a decade since the council announced it was putting $130 million towards the $250-million program in October 2013. The following year, the Victorian government transferred crown land south of the Franklin Street stores to the council for a mixed-use development alongside the Queen Victoria Markets revamp. The council adopted the masterplan for the precinct in July 2015 after feedback from more than 7500 people. In 2020, the Victorian government amended the agreement after more feedback from residents, traders and other stakeholders. The agreement solidified obligations by the council and private developers across a number of projects, including the restoration of the market’s sheds and buildings, to deliver much-needed infrastructure, facilities and amenities for the traders, and convert the current car park into public open space. Also included was the provision of more retail, hospitality and community spaces across the precinct, the creation of bike paths, upgrading streetscapes and reconfiguring land parcels. The council now counts around more than 55 decisions made by councillors during the past decade relating to the renewal program. Not the sort of bones you were expecting The Queen Vic, as it is affectionately known by Melburnians, was first opened as a market on March 20, 1878 but its history goes further back. As traders and visitors use the market site, they walk over land that remains part of key landmarks and the cultural landscape for the Wurundjeri, the traditional owners of the land. Post-colonisation, it was also the site of Melbourne’s first cemetery. There are an estimated 10,000 early settlers thought to have had their remains buried there, including an area specifically for Aboriginal burials, which is now recognised as an Aboriginal historic place. Part of the wall of F Shed marks the northern boundary of the cemetery. It is therefore no surprise that in 2018 the site was the 114th site to be added to the National Heritage Register. In December 2021, the council endorsed a delivery plan for the program—to keep things progressing despite lockdowns and diminished foot traffic. ▲ A render of the new food hall at the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne. What’s involved? By the end of 2022, 10 of the 12 heritage sheds on the site will have been restored with the final two, the Trader Shed and the Northern Shed, to be completed in 2023. A modern food hall is scheduled for completion in April or May 2023 and work will begin on improving the Therry Street streetscape. Essential services have also been installed in the C Shed. In the meantime, there are plans to create more public open space to replace the old car park with all parking moved to a 500-space park that is part of City of Melbourne's Munro Community Hub project. The car park will also have 12 electric vehicle charging stations for public use. “We know that there are others in car parks around Melbourne,” Capp said. “We have 12 there and we’ll look to increase that with new car parks that we deliver as we move into the future.” The council purchased the site for $76 million from the Munro family, who had owned it since 1910, to prevent supermarkets or other competing commercial busineseses establishing themselves next to the markets. ▲ A render of Golden Age Group’s project at 432-450 Queen Street next to the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne. Council then filed plans to develop the site in 2017 which were then approved in 2018 by the then Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne. A variety of different uses were set in place for different parts of the site, allowing private developers to be part of the project. This included the City of Melbourne's community hub, Mirvac's Liv Munro project but also a new hotel - Hotel Veriu, due to open next year. All of the 110 rooms in the hotel will be micro-apartments. It will also boast a 24/7 reception, gym, pool, pantry shop, guest laundry, working spaces, event spaces and meeting rooms. Catering to the community More than 24,000 residents are expected to move into the precinct by 2041. The council hopes this will ensure the market survives—such a substantial lift in the number of people living nearby could result in an extra 600,000 visits to the market per year, according to the 2015 masterplan. “This is the fastest growing residential neighborhood that we have as well as business here in the north part of the city,” Capp said. This fact alone makes Mirvac’s Liv Munro project crucial with 490 build-to-rent units on the site. Mirvac has two other Liv branded build-to-rent projects in Melbourne, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane on the way. The incoming residents need other services and amenities to create a sense of community so the City of Melbourne opted to develop the Munro Community Hub. While, initially, the hub was to house a childcare centre, this was found to be superfluous with other options nearby so was swapped out for a library. “When we did an analysis in the CBD there were a lot of providers in the area, including a fantastic facility run by RMIT,” Capp said. “So that capacity is being provided through either our facilities nearby or ABA providers.” ▲ The market is a Melbourne landmark for residents and visitors. The hub will also have retail and hospitality spaces. “We’re putting in a new flagship library and there will be community and social services and philanthropic and social enterprises located there,” Capp said. “We’ve got a lot of new retail and hospitality coming to that part of the precinct and some are already there like ReWine and Masterplan Coffee.” A portion of the units has been set aside as affordable housing with rents set around 25 per cent below market rates and organised through community organisation Housing Choices Australia. “There is also affordable, as in below market rental, being made available in Munro,” Capp said. “We’ve had tenants there for almost 12 months in the affordable housing component. “And they’ve been living there through all of the last bits of construction next door.” Liv Munro is due to open up the rest of the units next week. The same affordable housing requirements are in place for Golden Age Group’s project at 432-450 Queen Street, where two towers are proposed. One 21-storey tower will cater for 129 apartments with 13 set aside for affordable housing. Golden Age Group estimates the Bates Smart Architects-designed project would generate a gross end value of $20 million and up to 140 construction jobs. ▲ The renewal of the market precinct is among the most important projects in the city and will have flow-on effects to neighbouring areas. It will have a basement level with 180 bicycle storage spaces but no car parking spaces and retail spaces on the ground floor and the first two floors and residential amenities on the fifth floor. When will it all be done? While Liv Munro is slated to open soon and Hotel Veriu is scheduled to open sometime early next year, the City of Melbourne has other projects in mind. This includes a mixed-use project on Franklin Street as well as a new Market Cross open space and other key parts of the renewal program to be completed. “The [Franklin Street site] is a mixed use site as well,” Capp said. “That will have commercial uses, it’ll have a lot of residential units, including a minimum of 15 per cent affordable housing to be run by a community housing organisation. “And it’s probably the biggest development site in Melbourne at the moment.” The project is still in the early stages—details will be announced closer to the end of the year. Other commercial towers are slated for William Street and the surrounding area. Capp estimates that most of the projects currently on the board will be completed in the mid-2030s. “But some of the private sector planning applications that are in the system show us that the numbers in terms of new residents, for example, go out right until 2040.” Exactly which book the lord mayor will be reading come early next year remains to be seen. But if you do see her in Brick Lane Shed with a book in hand, feel free to buy her a beer. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] To Market, To Market: Queen Vic’s New Era Dawns

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