Canada’s NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT, partnered by Epworth Healthcare, is planning a $600 million innovation, education and healthcare precinct in Geelong, Victoria’s second largest city, in one of the largest such developments yet outside a state capital.

As part of three related deals, NorthWest will take a half stake, alongside the hospital operator, in a 4.2-hectare plot of land next to the existing Epworth facility, where the pair aim to build out 100,000sq m of real estate over the next decade.