Decision Pending on Warragul Business Park

Developer Advantage All has filed plans for a business park at Warragul in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.

The park is proposed for a 144,000sq m site at 14-40 and 42-60 Wills Street and 98 King Street and would provide 95,000sq m of space with at least 24 lots available for anchor tenants.

It would have access to the Princes Highway and Advantage All plans to include walking trails and seating to allow workers to take advantage of the natural wetland surrounding the site.

Development would be staged, according to Advantage All’s website, with up to $25 million in funding sought as part of the development process.

The plans are being considered as part of an amendment to the Baw Baw planning scheme under the 1987 Planning and Environment Act.

The amendment proposes removing the urban floodway zone and replacing it with an industrial 1 zone and development overlay.

A draft permit that is part of the amendment proposes subdividing the land into 24 lots for the business park. 

▲ Federal Mills was the first stage of the Pivot City precinct, allowing for adaptive reuse.

Contour Consulting lodged the request on behalf of Advantage All’s Warragul Freeway Business Park Corporation Pty Ltd, asking the minister to facilitate the proposal via the Development Facilitation Program.

The site between Princes Highway on one side with Wills Street on the other and King Street connects the highway to Wills Street.

A new road through the site would be part of the subdivision plans with around 26,304sq m of land put aside to create a drainage reserve and realign waterways. 

The business park is not the only use proposed for the site as Advantage All is seeking planning permission from the council for a proposed childcare centre on another part of the site.

So-called factoryettes have also been proposed by the landowner on another lot within the large site and one of the two existing sheds on the site is part of another application for its expansion.

Advantage All’s website states that they settled on the property in March 2019.

It also lists Melissa Fisher and Trevor Reynolds as its directors with Matt Murphy in charge of corporate development.

Developers are seeing a trend in business parks being planned and developed to include amenities that attract workers and businesses as tenants as opposed to standalone office towers.