TRANSFORMING more shabby and neglected first-floor shops into modern apartments would help create a much more vibrant shopping and dining culture in Bendigo’s CBD, developers and business leaders say.
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The City of Greater Bendigo has attracted the support of an independent panel for its “compact city” plan, which focuses development on areas inside the existing urban growth boundary.
As the the city moves towards realising its compact city vision, developer Mark Coffey says conditions remain ripe for a significant increase in apartments above the CBD’s shops.
“What we need to do is fill the city up with residents to make the ground floor retail work. Trying to have retail on the second floor is not working,” he said. “If we could encourage more people to live here, the CBD would have a vibrancy.”
In existing buildings in the CBD, Mr Coffey said, there were at least 80 sites that could be transformed into modern apartment living.
Mr Coffey’s company has restored dozens of ramshackle floors above shops in the CBD and converted them into about 40 apartments since the 1990s.
“What was typically a disused commercial space, we’ve converted to a residential space,” he said. “Most had been vacant for an average of 30 years. The structure of the building was generally good and, typically, we’ve done a fill modern fit-out.”
Bendigo Business Council chief executive Leah Sertori sees the value in such development.
“There’s a huge opportunity,” she said.
Inner-city living, when complemented by fine dining and strong cafe culture, contributed to the success of a city’s retail sector, Ms Sertori said.
Prue Mansfield, director of planning and development at the City of Greater Bendigo, said the council supported development in the CBD. Right now, she said, demand was for serviced apartments, but permanent inner-city living would appeal to young professionals, young couples, older couples whose children had left home and those who simply liked the lifestyle.
Some of Mr Coffey’s apartments are now used for short-term accommodation. Owner-occupiers in the CBD, he said, had increased, but there was still a dearth of people wanting to live in town.
“If more people were to live there, their friends would start to see what it’s like and … and you’d create a culture,” he said.
Growth to spur change in CBD
The council is expecting significant new building and redevelopment in the CBD in the next 20 years as it pushes towards its goal of having 3000 people living in central Bendigo.
Ms Mansfield said the council expected more apartment projects – such as the one at the corner of Mitchell and Mollison streets – to be built from the ground up, and for more people to convert first-floor shops into apartments.
“Quite a few people are saying, ‘We can’t get what we want’,” she said.
The council would “work through” hindrances to inner-city development, including those related to parking and access to services, Ms Mansfield added.
The council also predicts a resurgence in the number of people seeking housing in the CBD.
“It’s long-term, it’s not going to happen overnight,” she said. “But the more people we get living in the CBD, the more vibrant it will be. It’s good economics for retail and the city.”
The council’s definition of the CBD in this case also includes most of Bridge Street as well as High Street all the way to the intersection at Don Street. Ms Mansfield expected Hargreaves, Queen and King streets southwest of Arthur Street to remain a shared business and residential area, even if more businesses left for expanding commercial areas closer in.
“It’s a mixed-use area and always will be.”
Developers ‘must consider heritage’
New developments in the CBD need to complement Bendigo’s golden-age architecture and themselves have character and functionality, developer Scott Jackman says.
Mr Jackman is building the apartment and retail building on the corner of Mitchell and Mollison streets and has plans for a five-storey development between Wills and Garsed streets.
After having converted a number of CBD buildings into apartments, Mr Jackman said he hoped his new developments would be functional and tasteful.
“I love our public buildings. The library … the Ulumbarra and the Art Gallery,” he said. Though Mr Jackman’s budget was small in comparison, he said, better design would ensure buildings aged well aesthetically.
