RD: I was remiss last week in not pointing to The Journal's 150th anniversary special edition. It was fantastic — it provides a really great historical context for both the paper and the city. I highly recommend checking it out.Read more...
The State Government is being called to scrap a developers' levy which is designed to recoup the cost of the Revitalising Central Dandenong project. Read on dandenong.starcommunity.com.au →
RD: Well, about time! (I think I'm justified in saying that after 8 years.) The levy was an interesting and risky idea when the Revitalising project kicked off. Interesting because it showed a lot of faith in the whole project. Risky because you put taxes (levies) on things you want to discourage (you know, things like emitting carbon). And you make people pay it up front when you really want to discourage something. That's the complete opposite of what (you would think) was desired here.
Economics 101 tells you that since the market was already setting the price of development, and development wasn't happening at that price (that was the whole point of revitalisation), adding a tax on top of things was only going to work if people thought the State Government's initiatives were so spectacularly brilliant that they would compensate for the tax and then some. Turns out nobody thought that. Developers did buy in initially, but underlying demand was weak — perhaps because most people who lived here viewed the revitalisation as intangible and unrealistic, and people who didn't live here didn't believe anything of interesting was going on here. All of which turned out to be self-fulfilling!
We learnt this information really early on, so the tax should have disappeared really early on. According to the article, it did disappear — for specific, government-linked clients. For everyone else, it didn't. Who knows how that cost us? Hopefully business manager Paul Kearsley, and hopefully he can communicate that well enough to the State Government to get this clearly perverse disincentive removed.Read more...
Expressions of interest are being sought from innovative food retailers (including food trucks) with unique street food concepts for a new summer outdoor food market.
Australia will be well represented at the 2014 World Architecture Festival awards with 26 completed and 10 uncompleted projects to compete across 17 categories. Read on architectureanddesign.com.au →
RD: The new mental health facility near the hospital is one of those projects nominated. Read more...
Local residents will have the opportunity to have a say on the concept drawings for the level crossing removals and new stations being delivered as part of the Cranbourne Pakenham Rail Corridor Project, Premier Denis Napthine said today.
REECE Plumbing has agreed to move to a Dexus Property Group-owned industrial facility in Melbourne's southeast at an annual rental thought to be more than $1. 9 million.
Dandenong LOGIS collects national awardDandenong LOGIS, Victoria’s first eco industrial estate, has won the best business or industrial park award at the Property Council of Australia’s national innovation and excellence awards.
Urban Melbourne has a great article summarising the progress of the Revitalising Central Dandenong project (with pictures), including a re-cap of present and future projects, as well as some of the projects that failed to go ahead.
Proposed Serviced Apartments
Places Victoria has negotiated a deal with the Pellicano group to build a 6 storey serviced apartments building (with 55 apartments) on one of the sites in the redevelopment area (Financial Review (PayWall); Urban Melbourne).
Jim Memeti is Greater Dandenong's Mayor for the second time | Herald Sun
GREATER Dandenong's new Mayor Jim Memeti is expecting major building projects to dominate his year in office, including the new $60m municipal building in Lonsdale St.
New residential zones for Dandenong - Premier of VictoriaA new plan for housing and jobs in Dandenong has been implemented by the Victorian Coalition Government and the City of Greater Dandenong.
Dandenong Library cracks 1 million visitors, busiest in the state | Herald Sun
DANDENONG Library Service is the busiest in Victoria, clocking up more than one million physical and virtual visitors in 2012-13.
Hilton Engineering installs Aus' largest tracking-equipped solar array - Solar ChoiceSteel products manufacturer Hilton Manufacturing has commissioned a one-of-a-kind project on the roof of its factory in Dandenong South, outside Melbourne, Victoria.
Parking regime | Dandenong JournalDANDENONG’S retailers body has made a bold proposal to Greater Dandenong Council to fix one of its greatest bugbears – customer parking shortages in the CBD.
Big EGO deal for Places Victoria estateState agency Places Victoria has closed its biggest deal yet at a Melbourne industrial park, with EGO Pharmaceuticals planning to build a $100 million facility at the Dandenong estate.
Salta Properties - Portlink welcomes BunningsNews and Media |16 September, 2013, Melbourne– In one of the largest industrial leasing deals ever concluded in Melbourne’s South East, Bunnings has committed to a long term lease over 43,000 square metres of space at Salta Properties’ Portlink Dandenong South Inland Port Estate.
Clow Street Apartments - Particular ArchitectsThe Clow Street Apartments is one of many multi-unit developments currently being planned for within the progressive and rapidly densifying Council of Dandenong.
Australian Tax Office DandenongCrone Partners are the lead designers for the new $75 million Australian TaxOffice (ATO) in Dandenong, Victoria, to be developed by epc.
High-rise horror | Dandenong JournalA PLANNING expert warns there will be “hell to pay” if the looming threat of multi-storey apartment blocks in Dandenong’s established residential streets isn’t curbed by planning zone changes.
Port of Hastings expansion to take a decadeThe state government is planning for the Port of Hastings to begin easing the load at the Port of Melbourne from the mid-2020s.
DEECD Surplus Land RezoningThe Dandenong Education Precinct (Doveton Secondary College) located at 64-70 Box Street, Doveton has been declared as being surplus to education requirements by DEECD.
Shortlist announced for $156 million Dingley Bypass - Premier of VictoriaA key section of the Dingley Corridor is one step closer to construction with Minister for Roads Terry Mulder announcing the shortlist in the Expression of Interest process for the Dingley Bypass today.
The Casey Cultural and Civic Precinct ProjectThe City of Casey Council (‘the Council’) in Victoria has announced the $125 million Casey Cultural and Civic Precinct, centred on a landmark 800-seat regional theatre.
Rail boost call | Dandenong StarCouncillor Long said Infrastructure Australia, the Federal Government’s advisor on national infrastructure priorities, recommended the [Dandenong] Rail Capacity Program receive cash as it had “real potential” as a nation-building project.
In with the new look | Dandenong StarTHIS is the final edition of the Greater Dandenong Star, but Star News Group’s coverage of the municipality is set to strengthen in the coming weeks.
