By NOEL MURPHY
A $100 MILLION inner-Geelong student housing project that would have generated 1000 jobs during construction has been abandoned as the Federal Government tightens its rental assistance scheme.
The Commercial and General/Teleta project, proposed for a site along Brougham and Cavendish streets, had been rejected as a result of budget spending cuts, Teleta spokesman Ryan McGarigle told the Independent.
The project was to comprise more than 500 student units that would have been rented out at a 30 per cent discount to market rates had the government approved National Rental Assistance Scheme help.
It was also to include commercial office and ground-floor retailing and car parking but Mr McGarigle said the project had been “nailed in the last budget”.
“They discontinued the project,” he said. “It was all relevant to NRAS funding, that’s what made it affordable . They say they don’t want it used for students but students wreck houses in the suburbs and put pressure on low socio-economic residents.
“I can understand they’ve got to save money and there are different ways to improve affordable housing stock.”
Mr McGarigle said his company’s efforts with the Cavendish project had been an expensive waste of time and money.
Two other student housing projects – an $8 million Deakin University renovation of the historic T&G Building in central Geelong, backed with NRAS funding, and a private $9.75 million project in Bayley Street — are continuing. They will provide 33 and 117 student units respectively, with virtually no car parking.
Another project — $45 million 10-storey plans for 222 student units in Brougham Place at the rear of Terminus Lane and scheduled to start building in October 2013 — continues to sit idle.
And a project at the corner of Malop and Gheringhap sts, initially put up as an $18 million 15-storey to house 329 students, has been reconfigured as a $90 million, 12-storey proposal aimed at drawing government tenants such as the National Disability Insurance Agency or Workcover.
It’s hardly the only project aiming for such tenants. The nearby Carlton Hotel site is also host to a nine-storey $120 million proposal; likewise Myers St where a $40 million, 11-storey plan has been approved for the Kings Funerals site.
Mr McGarigle was cynical about Geelong’s construction prospects, saying he’d been involved in “early days discussions” about possible NDIA and Workcover projects.
“There’s only a small number of developers in Geelong capable of producing these and it all comes down to funding,” he said.
“The government doesn’t want to spend, which is slowing things down. They’ll try to locate in existing buildings instead.
“Geelong did quite poorly out of the federal budget. It’s like they want us to hit rock bottom and then come in.”
