Hamilton Pushes on with Final Geelong Pivot City Stage

A planning scheme amendment has been filed with the Victorian planning department for the third and final stage of a key industrial and commercial precinct at North Geelong. 

Hamilton Group filed the plans and the amendment application for the 2.43ha site at 50 Mackey Street, the former home of a power station. 

Power Station B remains on the site—the JAM Architects-designed plans include adapting the heritage-listed building and refurbishing it.

Work to build the station began in 1934 and it provided power to local industries and residents from 1954 to 1970.

Hamilton’s plans include 350m of waterfront, 440 carparking spaces and more than 10,000sq m of workspace close to the freeway, train and bus stations, cycling paths and Geelong’s airports.

It will be the third and final stage of the Pivot City business park offering industrial and commercial space. The Federal Mills and Glass House stages of the park are already complete.

Hamilton Group will continue to be the landowner post-development and has already secured tenants for the other two stages. it said. 

The Geelong Planning Scheme Amendment proposes a change in the limits around office use on the site.

This would allow the site, currently zoned for industrial use only, to include office and allow Hamilton to take a mixed-use approach to the site. 

Many of the tenants in the other two stages are keen to have office space to co-locate knowledge workers alongside the industrial spaces that they can lease for production, processing or manufacturing teams.

▲ Federal Mills was the first stage of the Pivot City precinct, allowing for adaptive reuse.

Alongside this, Hamilton is keen to include spaces for services to provide tenants with everything that their employees need within the precinct. 

“We don’t necessarily go about saying ‘let’s qualify for A-grade’,” Hamilton director Andrew Hamilton said.

“We go about saying,‘what do people want and how do we make that and provide value?’.

“The primary focus is about creating places that offer value and are exciting for the workers, particularly in this day and age where it’s about retention of employees, whereas 20 to 30 years ago it was more about management wanting an effective space.”

The planning scheme amendment application and project plans are currently open for public consultation. 

A panel will assess the application along with reports from stakeholders, including the City of Greater Geelong’s council and any public submissions before the Victorian planning minister makes a determination. 

Developers have good reason to focus on developing property in the Greater Geelong area. 

▲ Inside Power Station B on the site.

Tourism has picked up with Victoria hitting its 2024 targets for tourism expenditure more than a year ahead of schedule and within Greater Geelong, the opening of the port terminal for the Spirit of Tasmania has spurred on tourism interest. 

“The Spirit of Tasmania terminal has relocated 600m down the road,” Hamilton said.

“So we are the closest facility to that terminal.

“One of the great things about this is after decades of pretty low employment prospects once manufacturing left the area there is a sign that there’s regeneration and there’s new businesses. 

“And it’s a great opportunity for this part of the city which has largely missed out on the growth of Central and South Geelong.”

The Spirit of Tasmania relocation along with the development of the Great Ocean Road’s tourism hotspots, and its position as one of hosts for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, has led to a demand for more tourism accommodation.

Accommodation is also needed for residents as the city’s growth, expanding commuter suburbs along the Melbourne-Geelong train line and bigger developments within its CBD and the redevelopment of key public spaces including cultural institutions, creates a demand for more workers.