We are excited about our vision and have long-term confidence in Victoria Gardens. It’s strategically located in a State Designated Activity Centre providing for significant growth over time and its location between vibrant Melbourne suburbs with strong transport links means that it benefits from high residential demand. Victoria Gardens is a key asset for Vicinity and Salta and plays an important role in our asset portfolio.

One of the key benefits of the masterplan is the public realm strategy that delivers new and expansive open spaces for the community’s use.

The total construction cost is estimated at $900 million, and the redevelopment is expected to add close to $837 million of annual direct and indirect contributions to the state’s economy on an ongoing basis.

A new, truly mixed-use precinct at the corner of Burnley and Doonside Streets, seamlessly connected with Victoria Gardens to the north.

• 12,030 square metres of new retail and commercial floorspace, with a new fresh food market hall
• New residential buildings with shared amenities, providing 827 new homes.
• 3,500 square metres of new publicly accessible open spaces
• 844 new bike spaces
• 518 car spaces

Connecting the east of Victoria Gardens to the Yarra River corridor through a series of publicly accessible, open and sunlit spaces and thoroughfares.

• More than 6,200 square metres of publically accessible open space
• 840 new dwellings across a cluster of new residential buildings
• 6,700 square metres of new retail space
• 26,600 square metres of commercial office space and a 110 place childcare centre
• 1323 car spaces

Up to 10% of the residential capacity of the redevelopment will be affordable housing.

The majority of buildings are between 6 and 12 storeys, consistent with the area’s urban landscape. A 17-storey building is proposed in the centre of both the Doonside and River Boulevard precincts.

Bringing our vision to life will generate 680 construction jobs annually, plus more than 3,300 ongoing local jobs at the precinct.

We will have a staged and phased approach. If approved, the recently lodged development applications could see the long-term masterplan delivered in multiple stages, to minimise customer disruption, and centre and neighbourhood impacts. Throughout this process we will work closely with the community and retailers to minimise the impacts.

Our proposed vision aligns with the Victorian Government’s Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 strategy which identifies Richmond as a significant area for jobs and housing growth, together with continuing to be a major health and education centre, all served by three forms of public transport – rail, bus and tram. We share the same confidence in the future potential of this area and are prepared to invest in a large-scale redevelopment of Victoria Gardens, which is already designated by the State as a Major Activity Centre.

The Yarra Open Space Strategy, 2020 (YOSS) prioritises providing new open space in medium and high-density precincts where substantial change is forecast and the new community will create a need for additional open space. The proposed open space at Victoria Gardens will support and sustainably meet the open space needs of the existing and future community.

No. In October 2019 Vicinity and Salta (together the co-owners) announced the purchase of two plots of land adjoining the centre on Burnley Street and Doonside Street, which will allow the progress of the development. More recently, two small and redundant laneways have been purchased from the City of Yarra. So, the projects won’t increase the size of the precinct but rather refresh and repurpose existing space, utilising land within the current site’s footprint.

In so far as customer parking is concerned for our retailers and their customers, Victoria Gardens already has a surplus of parking spaces at present. However, the upper levels are under used. We are investigating ways to improve access to and from the upper levels of the existing car park in order to make the existing space more accessible to customers.

The vision for Victoria Gardens capitalises on Richmond’s status as one of Melbourne’s busiest rail and bus transport hub and the redevelopment will provide better access to and from existing public transport options (by way of connectivity through the precinct) as well as promoting active transport options (walking, cycling) via far improved connectivity to cycle paths and surrounding streets.

We are working in conjunction with the City of Yarra on a transport plan that supports improved public transport around and servicing Victoria Gardens, however increased services would be the decision of the public transport operator.

The proposed development proactively reduces car parking provisions to minimise traffic impacts:

• Retail - no additional parking is proposed, demand to be accommodated within existing vacancies
• Office – parking is proposed at a rate of ~1 space/100m² (a third of the typical statutory car parking rate)
• Residential – parking is proposed at a rate of ~1 space/2 apartments (less than a half of the typical statutory car parking rate)
• This is a total of 1841 (518 at Doonside and 1323 at River Boulevard) car spaces for the redevelopment

New traffic generated by the proposed development is expected to be modest in comparison to the existing traffic generated by the shopping centre overall.

Retail – 130 additional vehicle movements can be expected during the weekday PM peak hour. This traffic will be spread across the existing access points to the shopping centre.

Office and Residential – 90 additional vehicle movements can be expected during the weekday PM peak hour. This traffic will be directed onto Doonside Street, with the majority likely to be distributed through the Doonside and Burnley Streets intersection. Traffic capacity improvement works are proposed at this intersection via line marking changes, but the signalisation of the intersection is not deemed necessary for the proposed development.

We will work through the logistics of delivering the project once planning assessment progresses. We don’t anticipate disruption to the existing car parking at the centre.

The Doonside expansion will have a strong focus on sustainability, including Net Zero carbon emissions for all residential common areas and back of house services through a combination of design, use of both on and off-site renewable energy sources and carbon offsetting, as well as prioritising active transport options (walking, cycling) and existing transport options.