Investment Spotlight: Horizon 3023 Ravenhall
The Horizon 3023 business park is a 127 hectare site situated within walking distance of Caroline Springs train station which is already well advanced on stage 1 construction.
Dexus is Australia’s largest commercial landlord and owns over $15 billion of office and industrial properties across the country.
Dexus has a reputation for delivering high quality developments which attract tenants on long term lease arrangements, and this development is shaping up to be no exception. Horizon 3023 is a unique industrial/commercial business park in that it is just a couple of minutes’ walk from the train station, and enjoys convenient access to freight and logistics networks that will connect tenants with markets across Australia, as well as ensuring their workforce can easily commute to work.
With such great appeal, it is no surprise that there is a lot of interest in the site by potential tenants. Dexus plans to develop up to 400,000 square metres of prime commercial and industrial property on the site with an estimated $500 million investment over the life of the development. Large scale high-tech manufacturers, logistics companies and modern warehousing facilities are some of the first developments we are likely to see on site.
Dexus has high aspirations for the sight with plans to showcase the native grassland vegetation areas with a running track that will also connect the industrial precinct to office accommodation and amenities closer to the station.
The first anchor tenant was announced in 2019 as Scalzo Foods a national food manufacturing and wholesale company. Works are well underway on their 35,000 m2 site at Horizon 3023 which will include manufacturing, warehousing and a corporate head office which will allow Scalzo Foods to relocate from their current site in Kensington.
Horizon 3023 promises to be an exciting development for many years to come, and has the capacity to be home for around 5000 – 6000 jobs.
To understand the impact this project will have on the local economy lets look at some economic modelling done by Council’s Economic Development & Tourism unit.
If we take the anticipated $500 million of capital investment and assume it will be spread out evenly across the next 10 years, the impact on the local economy each year will be:
116 jobs directly supported
130 supply chain jobs supported
34 consumption effect jobs supported
TOTAL: 280 jobs supported annually during the construction phase in the City of Melton Economy
TOTAL ANNUAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT: $104 million in the City of Melton Economy
Once fully developed, and we assume there will be 5000 jobs from a mix of industries such as logistics, manufacturing and professional services, the reality is that additional jobs will be supported. A conservative estimate of the flow on effects based on this mix of jobs [1000 in manufacturing, 2500 in Warehouse & Logistics, 1000 in Professional Services, 500 in Acommodation and Food] looks like this:
5000 jobs directly supported
2382 supply-chain jobs supported
1043 consumption effect jobs supported
TOTAL: 8,425 jobs supported on an ongoing basis in the local City of Melton Economy
TOTAL ANNUAL ECONOMIC OUTPUT: $2.7 billion in the local City of Melton Economy
*Note: This economic modelling is based on 2016 census data, the future economy will look different and there will likely be more capacity to capture local expenditure as the City of Melton business base expands which would amplify these figures.
With more local jobs and employment, it is not only a great outcome for local residents looking to work closer to home, but it adds to the quantum of local business spend which has a positive flow-on effect that benefits all business sectors.
It will be interesting to see what sorts of businesses and industries make the smart decision to relocate and call the City of Melton home.
Bruce Marshall
Coordinator Economic Development & Tourism