Fabcot’s ‘Underdeveloped’ Footscray Scheme Greenlit

A Woolworths-anchored retail centre proposal at West Footscray described as “underdeveloped” has been greenlit on appeal. 

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) considered Maribyrnong Council’s refusal of the mixed-use precinct planned for 495-507 Barkly Street in proceedings published this month.

The two-storey neighbourhood retail centre designed by i2C Architects was proposed by Fabcot, Woolworths supermarket’s development arm, in 2023.

The proposal comprised a 3606sq m Woolworths supermarket and nine ground-floor shops, plus a 368sq m office, a 425sq m medical centre, 384sq m of gym space and a 1485sq m, 110-place childcare centre on the second level.

The project would replace an “iconic” Footscray site, the former 501 Receptions event venue. The site had previously been earmarked for larger residential projects. 

This included plans for almost 200 units in a five-storey apartment block that were subsequently downsized in 2019 before being abandoned.

The site was sold to Fabcot in 2021 for $15 million, according to RP Data.

The Maribyrnong Council did not make a decision on the project in the prescribed time period, sending the project to VCAT. 

▲ A rendering of the approved West Footscray retail precinct.

However, the council told the tribunal it would have refused the application.

It said the proposal would create a negative economic impact on the West Footscray Neighbourhood Activity Centre (WFNAC), and that the scheme was “underdeveloped” due to a lack of housing provision in the mixed-use zone precinct.

The council also argued there was an “oversupply of use” in the development, and said the supermarket would provide too much retail space given an IGA supermarket also in the neighbourhood. 

Without the balance of housing, it “threatens the ongoing vitality of the WFNAC”, the council said.

Complaints were also made about a “poor response” to design objectives and oversupply of parking that would increase traffic in the area.

An amended proposal was put forward, which dealt with urban design and some parking issues to the council’s satisfaction, but the local authority ultimately said the amended plans did not sufficiently address its, or other objectors’, concerns. 

The tribunal did not agree.

▲ A render of the Fabcot’s 20-storey proposal at Albion in Brisbane, one of its growing number of residential-focused schemes nationally.

VCAT said that although the inclusion of residential land use would be appropriate on the site, the lack of it was “not unacceptable”. 

Given the project’s location in a mixed-use zone, not every site needed to include housing, the tribunal determined.

It also agreed with Fabcot and the council, which had separately acknowledged that the “retail hierarchy” of the area would be affected, only differing to the extent on how much it would be impacted. 

But the tribunal ultimately decided that there was enough separation between the IGA, wider shopping strip and the proposed supermarket that it was not an “unacceptable” outcome to have another supermarket in the vicinity. 

VCAT set aside the council’s decision and granted a permit for Fabcot to develop the site.

Maribyrnong Council could perhaps be forgiven for expecting housing as part of Fabcot’s West Footscray project, given the rise of the developer’s residential plans of late. 

In the past 12 months, Fabcot has proposed a 110-unit project in Sydney’s Waterloo while in Brisbane it is planning 456 apartments in a build-to-rent play at Albion as it expands its mixed-use portfolio.