A $45-million ‘next-generation’ retail hub has been approved for a growing suburb south of Hobart.
The Kingborough Council has greenlit Tipalea Partners’ plans for the Spring Farm Village at Kingston, 12km south of the Tasmanian capital’s CBD.
The 7500sq m centre is expected to be completed on the site oppsite Bunnings on the Channel Highway early in 2026.
Anchored by a Coles Supermarket, to be the largest in Kingborough, the centre will also include the first Chemist Warehouse superstore in the region as well as specialty retailers including food and beverage outlets, and beauty services.
The developer said the centre would create more than 1100 jobs.
“As testimony to the pent-up demand for retail in Kingston, Spring Farm Village is already 70 per cent leased,” Tipalea Partners said in a statement.
One of Hobart’s fastest-growing regions, Kingston’s population is predicted to increase by 7000 people over the next 10 years.
The centre was designed by i2C Architects and aims to serve the growing residential population from Huntingfield through to Margate and Snug.
It would also be the most technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable retail centre south of Hobart, the developer said.
Features include a full solar array, EV charging stations, weather station, free Wi-Fi, wireless charging stations, cloud-based CCTV throughout, car counters, duress intercoms and a building information dashboard.
Spring Farm Village is the developer’s sixth development in Tasmania, and its second retail centre in the state after Glebe Hill Village at Howrah, 12km east of Hobart’s centre. The centre, which opened in August of 2022, is now on the block and being marketed by JLL.
Tipalea’s plans for an 8000sq m retail centre at Devonport recently stalled, pending rezoning and an appeal to the Tasmanian Planning Commission.
It has developed neighbourhood retail centres at Mackay in Queensland, Pimpama on the Gold Coast and Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Valley.
According to JLL Research, retail transactions in Tasmania have surpassed $130 million year-to-date.
It said the state was on track to achieve its highest annual volume of retail transactions, potentially exceeding the record of $175 million from 2015.
