SHARED VISION CRITICAL FOR CBD FUTURE

ONLY a day after the closure of retailers in Market Square shopping centre made front-page news, a new mega development for Geelong’s CBD has been unveiled. The $250m project aims to transform the current Grace Church site in Corio St into a 20-storey building complete with a supermarket, retailers, restaurants, conference centre and accommodation.

The exciting plan at once exposes the potential in Geelong's CBD as well as the clear challenges that need to be overcome.

What vision do we have for the future of our CBD? Is there demonstrated demand for additional retail space when other parts of the city are struggling to find tenants, or is the empty shopfront problem purely a matter of location? Are we going to continue to rely on city-based workers, or has this project been designed for a new era of inner-city residents?

There is no doubt Geelong’s city centre is a precinct ripe for transformation. And the continued migration to our region makes it the perfect time to adopt a clear, shared vision that will sustain the growing population long into the future.

But first we need to establish what that future looks like and ensure the appropriate framework and infrastructure is in place to ensure it is a success.