Green retail centre to rise in Whitehorse

The vacant Burwood Brickworks site in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs will be transformed into one of the country’s most sustainable communities complete with a green retail centre with a unique rooftop urban farm.

The 12,700sqm Burwood Brickworks shopping centre, which will be anchored by Woolworths and a proposed Dan Murphy’s, has a cinema, child care centre, medical centre, health and fitness operators proposed in the tenant mix.

Construction work on the Whitehorse site is expected to begin in the coming months with the property developer, Frasers Property Australia, saying they are aiming for the shopping centre to have a “living building certification from the International Living Future Institute.”

According to Frasers Property, they have put out the call for specialty retailers interested in setting up shop at Brickworks and is taking an open-minded approach to the retail mix. Progressive food and beverage operators are a particular target of the leasing campaign, with tenancies ranging from 25sqm to 300sqm.

“We want to hear from new and innovative concepts which fit the dining, entertainment and leisure focus for the centre,” said Peri Macdonald, executive general manager – Retail, Frasers Property Australia. “The visitor experience is a key consideration and this means an engaging mix of retailers and a vibrant dining precinct in the most comfortable environment imaginable.”

Macdonald said the centre integrate shopping, entertainment and community spaces to create a memorable place for people to have memorable experiences.

“There is also scope for the centre to serve an educational purpose, and with a number of schools in close proximity, this is something we will explore,” he added.

Macdonald said the 4,200 sqm Woolworths will offer customers everything they’ve come to expect from a full-line supermarket.

Brad Karge, Woolworths senior property manager, said the company is delighted to secure a key retail tenancy in the world-leading sustainability project because it closely aligns with Woolworths’ own environmental commitments.

“The new Burwood Brickworks Woolworths store will draw power from the solar panels installed in the centre and be fitted out with LED lights to reduce power usage,” Karge said. “The store’s refrigeration and air-conditioning will generate a reduced carbon footprint and use natural refrigerants, and we will also have an area in-store where customers can bring in their soft plastics to be recycled.”

Melbourne-based Hacer Group has been appointed to build the community’s new shopping centre, with DA approval for the ground-breaking development now received from Whitehorse City Council. The first sod for the centre is to be turned on-site today.

“Approval for the project has taken some time and that’s because of the complexity of what we want to achieve at Burwood Brickworks,” said Sarah Bloom, General Manager – Residential Victoria, Frasers Property Australia. “ This community will set a new benchmark for what’s possible in sustainable urban design.”

The former brickworks site will include 700 homes with the sustainable shopping centre at the heart of it.

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