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Geelong's waterfront
Lawrence Elms’s proposed development for the Geelong waterfront features several finger piers jutting out into Corio Bay, as well as an exhibition centre, apartments, restaurants, shops and a five-star hotel.
Featuring apartments, a five-star hotel and an exhibition/convention centre, a billion-dollar-plus development has been proposed for an undeveloped section of Geelong's waterfront in what the man behind the idea, master developer Lawrence Elms, says is a bid to spark a discussion about the city's future.
Concept plans for the east shore development - which would stretch along a kilometre of waterfront between Eastern Beach and Limeburners Point backing onto Eastern Park - show a series of low-rise apartment complexes built on finger piers that stretch out from a connecting boardwalk into Corio Bay, with the convention/exhibition centre, hotel and serviced apartments at the project's eastern end.
The proposed development would involve acquiring a 50-metre-wide strip of Crown land along the foreshore. Other ideas mooted include the possible construction of a 2.5-kilometre-long cable car that would link the project with the city centre, and the establishment of ferry and train links between Geelong and Avalon Airport as well as a ferry to Melbourne.
Janusz Kowal, partner and director at CK Designworks Architects in Melbourne, which has drawn up the concept plans, says the project would feature a ''cascading type of architecture'', with the top of the buildings in line with the top of the coastal escarpment.
''The idea is not to obstruct any views from the park,'' he says.
While the number of apartments and townhouses in the development remains a matter of speculation, Kowal says the current drawings feature about 110,000 square metres of residential development equating to 1300 or 1400 dwellings.
The project would also feature boat berths on the pier and retail outlets along the boardwalk, linking the development.
''We are looking at this boardwalk being quite a busy space with restaurants, shops and so on,'' Kowal says.
Mr Elms, the former chief executive of the Dubai International Financial Centre's land development arm, Land Company, envisages the development would be placed in the hands of an authority that would oversee management of the project with multiple developers involved.
Mr Elms, who comes from Geelong, says the proposal, which had its genesis in 2004 when he was invited to Victoria to talk about how to attract foreign investment, started ''as a process to structure a debate'' about Geelong's future.
''My plan was created around the thought that we need a transformational project; we need something that is going to ask people to think about Geelong differently,'' he says.
''I always thought that the Geelong waterfront was a fabulous space but completely under-utilised. I'd argue it's probably Geelong's greatest asset.''
The proposal, which he says would be a four-year project and carries an estimated price tag of $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion with ''zero cost'' to government, has sparked fierce discussion.
The city's mayor, Cr John Mitchell, says the concept is ''not unlike several other proposals I have in the drawer from a number of different people''.
''Once we put out in the public … our preferred site for the exhibition and convention centre, a number of other people have come along with similar proposals,'' he says.
Cr Mitchell says the council was already working with the state government to obtain the stretch of what is at present Crown land along the waterfront about 500 metres back from Limeburners Point and looking at the construction of an exhibition and convention centre and a low-rise hotel complex beside it.
But while he says the convention and exhibition centre is the council's priority, Cr Mitchell adds that ideas such as Mr Elms' need to be explored. ''The debate has just started and Lawrence Elms has stimulated that debate and that's a good thing.''
Peter Dorling, the executive director of the Committee for Geelong, agrees the proposal should be investigated.
''That part of Geelong … is in a lot of people's mind as underdone,'' he says. ''It's a terrific aspect and it would probably work if it had the right sort of investment behind it and the right connection.''
Mr Dorling says the city needs ''as much residential development as we can get'' with a mix of residential opportunities including waterfront living. Although he says whether it stacks up financially remains to be seen, ''it makes a bit of sense to really go through the exercise''.
Former president of Geelong Football Club Frank Costa describes the project as ''very exciting'' but says it would need to be looked at in conjunction with the Vision 2 master plan for the city being developed by a group including representatives of the City of Greater Geelong, Deakin University, the Committee for Geelong and the Department of Planning and Community Development.
''I think we've got the most exciting bay front in the country down there,'' he says.
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