WORK is under way on a controversial three-tower development that is expected to be the catalyst for more investment in Sunshine.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy said the Metrowest Foundry Towers project was a central part of plans to make Sunshine the epicentre of the inner-west.
“This government has a great level of confidence and a huge level of faith that Melbourne’s inner-west will be the place to do business and live into the future,” Mr Guy told Parliament last week, after launching building works at the site on the corner of Foundry and Hampshire roads.
The $158 million, three-stage Metrowest project is the first major mixed-use development of its type in Sunshine. It will have 258 apartments, 26 shops and a 15,000-square-metre office within three towers of eight and nine storeys. Brimbank Council chairman John Watson said the development would put Sunshine on the private investment radar.
ABD Group managing director Raffaele Aiello, who heads the private development consortium that bought the site in July last year, is working with council and the project team on commercial imperatives for the site and broader objectives for Sunshine’s town centre.
However, as reported by the Weekly last October, the Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association accused council of breaching planning laws in approving plans to increase the number of units in the development.
Metrowest sales director Glyn Bosisto said close to 80 per cent of apartments had been sold off the plan in the first two weeks. Stage one, including 119 apartments and 13 shops, is expected to be completed in 2014.
