$2bn stadium and housing development secures funding

An A-League soccer club in Melbourne has locked in the funding required for its $2 billion super-development, including a 15,000-capacity stadium.

A-League soccer club Western United has finally locked in the funding required for its $2 billion super-development, including a 15,000-capacity stadium, in Melbourne’s west. Picture: Western Melbourne Group.

A-League soccer club Western United has finally locked in the funding required for its $2 billion super-development, including a 15,000-capacity stadium, in Melbourne’s west.

The project, to be built in the fringe suburb of Tarneit, will cover a 62.5ha site and encompass new apartment blocks, housing subdivision lots, a hotel, commercial office space, an indoor sports arena, training and medical facilities, shops, bars and parkland.

The new development will incorporate apartments, houses, offices, a hotel, an indoor sports arena, training and medical facilities, shops, bars and parkland. Picture: Western Melbourne Group.

According to The Australian, Western Melbourne Group, which owns Western United, has secured a $50 million debt facility from New York Stock Exchange-listed building technology group Johnson Controls, which will allow the project to commence.

In 2022, Western United chairman Jason Sourasis said the group needed to raise an additional $50 million in order to get the project fully under way.

Funding for the rest of the project is coming from a public-private partnership deal with Wyndham Council and Melbourne developer YourLand Developments, which will build the project, and private investors, including athletes such as Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury, tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis and Australian Olympic basketballers Dante Exum and Chris Goulding, along with wealthy Melbourne families.

An artist's impression of the new stadium, which should be ready sometime during the 2026-27 A-League season. Picture: Western Melbourne Group.

Plans for the development have already been approved by the Victorian state government and were instrumental in Western United being granted an A-League licence in 2018.

Johnson Controls has a history of working on large US stadium developments.

Western Melbourne Group has already begun work on a 5000-seat training facility at the site, which will be used to host home games this year, according to Mr Sourasis.

“We will be playing in Tarneit, in the City of Wyndham before the end of the 2023/24 A-League men’s and women’s seasons and we look forward to our fans having a place to permanently call home,” Mr Sourasis told The Australian.

The new stadium should be ready sometime during the 2026-27 A-League season, he said.