Merrifield in Victoria

Just read the news in TheAge and a new town will be established in the north...Do you think it's a good investment?

http://www.theage.com.au/business/property/jobs-and-homes-in-new-city-20110322-1c514.html

Jobs and homes in new city Philip Hopkins
March 23, 2011
.Merrifield to house 30,000 people, writes Philip Hopkins.

EXTENSIVE commercial and industrial property projects that will create up to 30,000 jobs are at the heart of a new city, Merrifield, planned for Melbourne's north by MAB Corporation.

Merrifield, about 30 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD, will also support up to 30,000 residents. The project, which will involve the transformation of more than 1500 hectares of land, is a joint venture between MAB and Gibson Property Corporation.

Merrifield Corporation aims to create an ''integrated city'', not a big new residential suburb isolated at the edge of greater Melbourne. ''Jobs will be created close to where people live,'' said MAB's chief operating officer, David Hall.

Advertisement: Story continues below The Merrifield site is bordered on the east by the Hume Freeway, on the west by Old Sydney Road, on the north by Gunns Gully Road, and on the south by Mount Ridley Road.

Crucially for commercial and industrial development, the proposed Outer Metropolitan Ring Road runs just inside and parallel to Merrifield's western boundary, before looping around to connect with the Hume Freeway.

The outer ring road reserve also has the potential to carry heavy rail for freight, which could connect to the main north-south rail line to Sydney and Brisbane that is just east of the Hume Freeway. The proposed freight and logistics terminal at Donnybrook will be just to the north.

The extension of the urban growth boundary late last year paved the way for Merrifield. Mr Hall said the corporation had prepared a precinct structure plan and was working with the Growth Areas Authority. The plan had to be approved by the state government, he told BusinessDay.

The plan envisages an industrial employment area bordering the Hume Freeway on the east, before transforming into a commercial then retail zone in the new city centre. Residential areas would be concentrated on the western side of the development.

Mr Hall, who was a senior executive at Hume City Council, said the vision was for a 24-hour city - a destination for work, leisure and residential living.

Other key features of the plan are:

■More than 650 hectares of regional parkland and conservation areas.

■Transport links - more than 45 kilometres of bike tracks between home and work, and a major north-south rapid bus service to the CBD.

■Innovative water projects such as a stormwater wetlands next to the industrial zone.

■Community facilities - schools, sports oval, community centres, a hospital and potentially a university.

Mr Hall said the priority was to develop the employment land first. Trunk infrastructure had already been installed.

The site had been sewered and a power sub-station built that could power the broad region, he said. A project with Yarra Valley Water would create a wetlands using stormwater.

Mr Hall said street drains would collect rain and push it into a series of treatment ponds and wetlands that would remove pollution. From there it would go to a storage dam, then to a treatment plant to be turned into drinking water.

''About 10 hectares of wetlands will make a nice landscape feature between the Hume Freeway and the project,'' he said.

Mr Hall said logistics was likely to figure prominently in the industrial estate, especially given Merrifield's proximity to major road and rail infrastructure.

''It needs an anchor tenant - then people will understand it,'' he said.

Construction of the industrial estate would start hopefully by the end of the year or early next year.

''The early stages of residential should start in the second half of 2012, then the first support services in 2014-15 when people live there,'' he said. Work should begin on the city centre by 2019-20.

Merrifield Corp has called for expressions of interest from prospective development partners. On offer is a stake in one or more of the four superlots totalling 283 hectares in the residential precinct, which has the potential to create up to 4000 lots and a projected end value of $1 billion.

The precinct structure plan envisages a city centre of more than 170 hectares. This will include up to 100,000 square metres of retail floor space supplemented by 12,000 sq m of non-retail speciality floor space and 50,000 sq m of bulky goods floor space.

Three neighbourhood activity centres will provide an additional 15,000 sq m of traditional retail, specialty non-retail and bulky goods floor space.

Mr Hall said Merrifield could play a crucial role in the government's northern growth area framework plan. Melbourne's north had the capacity to handle nearly 100,000 new dwellings over the next 20-30 years.

Its population was forecast to reach about 380,000 in coming decades. ''This will provide Merrifield city centre with a substantial catchment,'' he said.
 
What do you think this will do to prices around Craigieburn/wallan areas?
This new project is only 35 mintutes away from Seymour also were you can still get CF+ properties - what will this do for this area also?
 
merrifield

Has anyone bought land and house package in Merrifield?
Just wondering because I know some people in Sydney are buying.
 
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