FORMER student accommodation could make way for a new development in Flora Hill.
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La Trobe University is reviewing its former student accommodation after this year opening new apartments at its Flora Hill campus.
The university had housed students in the ageing Osborne Street halls, which were next to the athletics track.
Regional pro vice-chancellor Hal Swerissen said the university would still use the site while it reassessed the future of the former accommodation.
Developers have spoken to the Bendigo Advertiser about the site’s potential for a new residential development.
A possibility for the site includes demolishing the existing structures and subdividing the land to make way for a major development.
City of Greater Bendigo planning and development director Prue Mansfield said the site was yet to receive a planning application for the site.
She said the council would be supportive of a new residential development for Flora Hill.
“We would be supportive of that as a development option,” Ms Mansfield said.
“It is the ideal location for a redevelopment and we would be really encouraging and supporting it.”
The first group of students shifted into La Trobe’s new Hillside apartments last month. The complex has a capacity for 200 student beds, 60 solely for the university’s Rural Health School.
The redevelopment cost more than $16 million and received state and federal funding.
The university has previously said the new development would help alleviate Bendigo’s rental market shortages.
A further 120 rented houses will also go back onto the market when Bendigo Health’s new staff accommodation complex is completed.
Councillors last week unanimously endorsed a planning permit for the $25 million Hunt and Atkins Streets development.