Investment Spotlight - Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre
Set over a 100 hectare site a just a few minutes’ drive south of the Western Freeway, The Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre will become one of the largest activity centres in greater Melbourne.
Development of the Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre will be delivered over the next 30 – 40 years and is designated for retail use, a health precinct, education space, offices, a justice precinct and recreation. With the Western BACE already well established, the recent opening of the Cobblebank Train station, the commencement of works on the Cobblebank Indoor Stadium and the Cobblebank Village retail hub, the area has changed a lot over recent years. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, with much more change to come.
In late 2019 Council formally adopted the Cobblebank Metropolitan Activity Centre – Urban Design Framework. This significant piece of work has set out the plan for where roads, open space and civic spaces will interact with commercial, retail, health and government uses. View a copy of the Urban Design Framework.
The activity centre will be home to thousands of jobs when it is fully completed, and will service a retail catchment of over 370,000 people. Within the designated area of the activity centre there will be 3000 dwellings, 70,000 m2 of retail floor space and a further 120,000 m2 of non-retail floor space available for commercial office, entertainment, medical, education, leisure etc..
The first commercial development will be the Cobblebank Village Shopping Centre, just to the south of the station. Set over 2.09 hectares and with 300 car spaces, the shopping centre will be anchored by Coles and feature 16 speciality stores. Construction is expected to be completed in 2021 which will add much needed amenity to for the fast growing population in the nearby Atherstone residential development.
Artist impression of Cobblebank Village
The $31 million Cobblebank Stadium is also under construction with completion expected in late 2021. This facility will feature 6 indoor high-ball courts that will cater for sports such as basketball, netball, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, futsal, school curriculum and community health and wellness programs.
Just to the north of the Activity centre is an additional 390 hectares of mixed-use employment land which will provide land for a wide variety of industrial and bulky goods retail business uses and help strengthen the importance of this area to the state economy. We’ll discuss the mixed-use employment land in another edition.
The development of Cobblebank has the potential to generate many thousands of jobs through the construction phase alone, and the ongoing economic impact to the region of having a thriving metropolitan hub will create jobs and prosperity for generations to come.
For any queries regarding investing in the City of Melton contact the Economic Development & Tourism Unit on: 03 9747 7200 venturemelton@melton.vic.gov.au
Bruce Marshall - Coordinator Economic Development & Tourism