Modewarre CORA sports precinct delayed until 2029
The $500m Modewarre CORA precinct was meant to be built by 2024. Now, it’s completion date has been pushed back by years.
Geelong
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A $500m sporting precinct in Modewarre “more than 10 years in the making” has been delayed again, with it’s completion date being pushed back to 2029 at the earliest.
Construction on Cape Otway Road Australia (CORA) needs to begin before September 30, 2025 — the expiry date for the planning scheme that allows the project to go ahead.
However, developers Cape Otway Elite Sports Retreat (COESR) are yet to submit their masterplan for approval from the planning department.
Works on the facility were meant to commence in late 2021 for a 2024 opening but the site remains untouched.
Despite this, co-founder and director Daryl Pelchen said he is “confident” that the deadline will be met.
“The project is in a very, very good place,” he said.
“It’s in everybody’s interest, having spent so much and taken so long, that we don’t relinquish the planning approval and we are working with all our stakeholders to make sure we meet those timelines.”
Mr Pelchen said he would “not apologise” for the lengthy setbacks and that it would all be worthwhile.
“You cannot spend $450m flippantly, so we need to be careful that we’re doing this the right way,” he said.
“People need to understand the size and … complexity of what we’re doing … we’ve rezoned 220 hectares.”
“To put that into context, Melbourne Park is around 40 hectares and the Australian Institute of Sport — the largest sport precinct in Australia — is 66 hectares.”
“It’s really a once-in-a-generation planning approval and it carries a lot of responsibility.”
CORA’s website still states that the precinct will happen in the ‘first half of 2027’.
Now, the target date is early 2029 — but that isn’t set in stone.
“It may be later than that … there’s no real pressure in terms of getting it completed,” Mr Pelchen said.
In August 2024, COESR received $490,000 through the state government’s Enabling Tourism Fund to help develop the masterplan.
The grant was to help develop a detailed business plan for the wetland and architectural elements of the project.
Initial works on CORA will start with the “culturally sensitive” wetland conservation area that makes up half the site.
Mr Pelchen said once this “slow” and “gentle” landscaping work is done, construction of the sport precinct will roar to life.
“The real mobilisation, once you’ve done the in-ground works, happens in a hurry because you’re spending enormous amount of money and have many builders on site,” he said.
When asked about the precinct’s relatively remote location, Mr Pelchen pointed to the partnership with international tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
“If the sceptics say ‘how can you do something in a paddock outside of Geelong?’, we say now … we’re sitting with some of the premier pieces of real estate on the planet,” Mr Pelchen said.
“The endorsement from Mouratoglou means we will have a facility that will be like what they have on the French Riviera and New York.”
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Originally published as Modewarre CORA sports precinct delayed until 2029
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