Development in Montague “powering on”

By Katie Johnson

The Montague precinct of Fishermans Bend is already a hub of development, with multiple high-rises being constructed around the suburb.

But as Australia’s largest urban renewal precinct, which the state government envisions will have 80,000 new residents by 2050, there is lot more development is in the pipeline.

Fishermans Bend Development Board chair Meredith Sussex said that Montague would be elevated as a suburb once all of the construction was completed.

“Currently there are 10 developments under construction in Montague valued at around $650 million,” Ms Sussex said.

“It will encompass about 2000 new dwellings and 8000 square metres of employment space—so there will be jobs in the same area people are living.”

At the end of last year, Minister for Planning Richard Wynne approved a number of new developments which total around 713 new dwellings.

One of those approved projects included a new build-to-rent development at 85 Gladstone St to be undertaken by US property firm Greystar.

Having purchased the three-tower site from CEL Australia for $65 million in December, Greystar plans to begin both projects this year, delivering hundreds of new rental homes to the Montague Precinct.

Ms Sussex said that the board was delighted in the interest Greystar had shown and that the build-to-rent development would be a “high-quality product”.

“It’s exciting because people are thinking about living differently in the urban environment even when they’re not necessarily able to buy in the urban environment,” Ms Sussex said.

She also said there had been discussions with a number of other developers who were looking at Montague for new commercial and residential permits.

However, with the uncertain COVID environment there had been less of a rush on building residential dwellings.

“Although we have an uncertain market due to COVID, development is still going strongly,” Ms Sussex said.

“We also have a new supermarket being built on Plumber St which the locals are really pleased about because it knits the community together.”

Ms Sussex said that overall, development in Montague was strong and more people were seeing potential in the precinct.

“Given 2020 was an extremely difficult year for everyone, Fishermans Bend is still powering on and people are really seeing the opportunity with how close it is to the city,” Ms Sussex said •