Retail precinct plans for 12-20 Fairbairn Dr, Corio lodged with City Hall
Developers seeking to build a new retail precinct next to Corio Aldi have asked City Hall to approve plans that include 98 less parking spaces than the statutory requirement.
Developers have lodged $3.5m plans for a new shopping precinct at the northern entrance to Geelong, but there’s a parking twist.
A proposal for a mixed-use development at 12-20 Fairbairn Drive, Corio would include 11 retail premises and offices, with a total leasable floorspace of 4181sq m, according to planning documents lodged with City Hall.
The site sits behind Corio Aldi, and would form part of a larger commercial precinct along with the nearby Geelong Gate homemaker centre on the Princes Hwy.
Harvey Norman is also a stone’s throw away, as is Beckley Park, the home of Geelong Greyhound Racing Club.
Behind the application is Rill Investment Holding Pty Ltd, a Glen Waverley-based company that lists 58-year-old Sheng Su as its director.
Rill Investment Holding has also asked City Hall to approve a significant reduction of required carparking spaces.
The plans include provisions for 69 car spaces, including “two disabled space” (sic), as well as five spaces on Fairbairn Drive, along with 22 staff bike parking spaces and 20 public bike spaces.
However, the traffic impact assessment notes that applying a statutory rate of four spaces per 100sq m of leasable floor area adds up to a requirement of 167 spaces – making the plans 98 spaces short.
The traffic assessment argued that such a reduction in required carparks was suitable, as the precinct would generate a peak parking demand of 39 car spaces.
The report also states that approximately 34 spaces will be used by staff.
It notes the homemaker centre across the busy highway has 374 available parking spaces but rarely filled them, with demand at the centre “low to moderate” throughout the survey period.
“The carparking surveys demonstrate that there is capacity to accommodate a modest increase in parking demands within proximity of the site,” the report states.
The exact use and tenants are yet to be confirmed, but the plans included photos of Grovedale Village as “precedent” images for what the proposed centre may look like.
Grovedale Village includes Starbucks, KFC and Guzman y Gomez, among other tenants.
The application form was lodged in December 2023, with the current iteration being advertised from October 23.
The Fairbairn Drive site was purchased in January 2019 for $2.03m, well below the asking price of $2.8m-$3.1m.
At the time, Harcourts North Geelong agent Joe Grgic told the Addy the buyers wanted to resurrect previously approved plans for medical and retail use of the site.
More than 26,000 vehicles pass by the site daily on the Princes Hwy, according to an online real estate listing, which cites VicRoads data.
The proposal will be advertised until November 11.
Originally published as Retail precinct plans for 12-20 Fairbairn Dr, Corio lodged with City Hall
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