Work on new Queen Vic Market food hall and sheds to start in 2022

Melbourne City Council has voted unanimously to go-ahead with its controversial $40 million Queen Victoria Market facelift.

How the revamped food hall at Queen Victoria Market could look.

Melbourne City Council has voted unanimously to go-ahead with its controversial $40 million Queen Victoria Market facelift at a council meeting on Tuesday night.

The project will see $35 million allocated to renovating trade areas and $4.5 million for a new-look food court with 400 construction jobs likely to be created.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the $40 million investment will create up to 400 construction jobs.

“Businesses throughout the City of Melbourne have been hit hard by COVID, and major projects such as the Queen Victoria Market renewal are critical to create local jobs and support our economic recovery,” she said.

“Traders have told us that the existing food court, which was built in the mid-1990s, is outdated and limits the potential to grow their businesses,” the Lord Mayor said.

“This upgrade will include an improved dining area including more seating, flexible layout, cooking demonstration area, greenery, new flooring and roof.”

Ms Capp said the shed upgrades will include new logistics, storage, waste and recycling facilities, toilets, showers and meeting rooms for the market’s 2000-strong workforce.

A render of the proposed food court interior.

“The trader shed and northern shed will deliver important safety, efficiency and sustainability improvements,” she said.

Heritage Victoria has approved the works.

A council meeting on Tuesday will consider the proposed developments, which should start in early 2022.

Separate works on historic shed restoration and on the nearby Munro redevelopment involve 500 jobs.

Meanwhile, a market supporters’ group has called on the council to designate the market as an official precinct to get special ratepayer funding.

In a submission, Friends of Queen Victoria Market said the many small traders were no different to other businesses in supported precincts such as Chinatown and Lygon Street.

“It is remiss of the (council) not to have recognised that the exclusion of QVM as the 10th

business precinct is discriminatory,” it said.

The group said that an independent association comprising traders and customers be formed, which would then be eligible for council funding to promote businesses to the community.

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