发表日期：2015年6月30日
发表媒体：《世纪报》
作者：Nicolas Lindsay
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State governments have encouraged the development of so-called “brownfield” sites as it creates new homes where infrastructure exists.
Housing estates, worth a total $1.5 billion, are poised to transform two former industrial sites in Melbourne’s south-east.
Developers have drawn up concept plans for the 12.3-hectare former WH Wills Virginia Park cigarette factory in East Bentleigh and an old 19-hectare sand quarry in Oakleigh South overlooking the Huntingdale Golf Club.
The move to develop so-called "brownfield" sites has been encouraged by state governments as it keeps new housing well inside the metropolitan boundaries where there is existing infrastructure.
However, the prospect of increased population density and the ensuing traffic in the low-density, low-rise suburbs is causing concern among local residents..
The Gillon Group, which has owned the Virginia Park site since 1994, is proposing an $850 million development with 1250 apartments and a 12,000 square metre neighbourhood shopping centre.
Virginia Park has been a business estate since the 1990s when it was largely occupied by Telstra. A slew of tenants including Officeworks, Visionstream, Xtralis and Call Active rent some of the 58,000 square metres of office buildings on the site.
The Gillon Group's founder Peter Gillon paid $8.5 million for the site in 1993 and sold half to the listed Abacus Property Group in 2006 for $37.5 million. Mr Gillon is also recently cashed up after selling two development sites for $40 million in Brighton and Mornington.
Gillon Group and Abacus are developing the estate in a joint venture called Fortrans. They have already tested the waters with the sale of 23 townhouses on a separate parcel of land adjoining Virginia Park on Dromana Avenue.
Gillon Group senior development manager Adam Brick said that development sold out in three months and received 400 expressions of interest.
Mr Brick said the concept plan involves keeping the main office building at the centre of the park and developing the south and east of the site where there is vacant warehousing and car parking.
However, a rezoning of the area in 2011 did not include residential development in these sections and the group has applied to Glen Eira City Council for an amendment.
"The existing 10-storey height limit on the site is over the existing major office complex. Currently the south and east of the site are the only areas which cannot accommodate residential development under the zone which is the reason for the zoning request," Mr Brick said.
"We already have a development plan overlay which provides for between three and four storeys to the boundaries of the site tapering up to 10 storeys in the centre. We have not sought to increase these height limits. We are seeking the amendment in order to preserve the office component of the site and redevelop the remainder," he said.
For local residents, headed by Marlene Laurent, the rezoning raises concerns that the number of apartments could blow out to more than 3000 in the project's later stages.
A concept plan drawn up by Cardno in 2014 proposes 3300 apartments in stages three and four, but Mr Brick said Gillon had no plans to replace the commercial precinct with residential development.
"It's a massive overdevelopment and there is no planning for the increased traffic. It's not near a train station or a tram line and they're not providing any extra green space or park land," Ms Laurent said.
Not far east of this estate, developer Sterling Global is finalising a concept plan for a South Oakleigh quarry site it acquired more than 18 months after a legal battle with developer Danny Schwartz.
Up to 440 townhouses are proposed for the land at 1221-1249 Centre Road, Oakleigh South, with the possibility of apartments and detached housing, depending on market demand.
Sterling Global development director Brandon Yeoh said: "We are comfortable with the density. We didn't want to overdo it."
"If there's a demand for apartments we can do up to 500 and reduce the number of townhouses," he said.
However, the plans are yet to be presented to City of Monash. Remediation work on the site is under way and expected to take about 18 months.