Retail Centre Forges Ahead in Victorian Commuter Centre

A retail centre to service one of Victoria’s booming commuter suburbs is moving ahead, adding Woolworths as the crucial anchor tenant.

Work is due to begin next year on Fraser Property’s The Grove retail centre at Tarneit, 25km west of the Melbourne CBD. It was approved by the Wyndham City Council late last month.

The Grove is a 167ha greenfield development that will eventually be home to 2600 families. More than 1600 people are already living there.

A primary school opened in the estate this year while a secondary school is due to open next year.

Frasers Property acquired the 43ha site in 2019 for $27.5 million from a private syndicate.

The centre, in two sections divided by Bethany Road and linked by a pedestrian crossing and reserve, will include a full-sized 4000sq m Woolworths supermarket plus more than 20 retail outlets across a further 4000sq m, including a bakery, greengrocer, nail bar, pizza restaurant, pharmacy and gym.

Across Bethany Road will be a learn-to-swim school with 25m pool, fast food outlet, service station and a car wash.

▲ Frasers Property general manager development Victoria Sarah Bloom.

There will be 320 car spaces in total with a bus service to Tarneit and Werribee railway stations. Southern Cross station in the city is about 60 minutes from Tarneit  on the Geelong line or 40 minutes by road.

Frasers Property Australia general manager development Victoria Sarah Bloom said the retail centre would be “the final jewel in the community’s crown”.

Empire Properties will develop, construct and manage the new shopping centre on the adjacent site it purchased from Frasers Property in 2020.

Tarenit is a hotbed of greenfield development with many of the nation’s biggest players developing substantial estates and amenities in the suburb.

In February, Goldfields’ $100-million, 4.7ha commercial development dubbed The Sheds Tarneit, to will be anchored by a full-line 3473sqm Coles supermarket with a Liquorland store and fast food retailer McDonald’s, was approved.

▲ A render of Goldfields’ The Sheds Tarneit.

The 13,100sq m town centre is due to open later next year and will feature a “diverse range of speciality food stores, hospitality venues, a childcare centre, medical facility and fuel station”, according to the developer.

That same month, Oreana Property Group lodged a mixed-use proposal with the Wyndham City Council for a 1.4ha parcel at 800 Derrimut Road, Tarneit.

Planned is a “village” shopping centre surrounded by more than 1000 homes under construction.

Other developers in the suburb include Peet, the Dahua Group, Villawood, HB Land, SIG Group and Stockland.

Tarneit was named when it was surveyed in 1839–1840 and comes from the Wathaurong word for the colour white.

It is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in outer Melbourne with a population of 49,780 (2020), which is expected to increase by 164 per cent, to 131,166 by 2041.