Melbourne Airport is proposing to develop the Elite Park precinct as a premium leisure, entertainment, retail and hospitality destination.
Elite Park will transform the vacant 32-hectare site located between the Tullamarine Freeway and Airport Drive into a leisure, entertainment and retail destination. The precinct will complement the nearby URBNSURF facility and Essendon Football Club’s training grounds by bringing new and exciting commercial tenants to the airport precinct.
Melbourne Airport is working with several prospective tenants, including leisure and entertainment, large-format retail and food and beverage outlets.
Elite Park will enhance the existing leisure offerings in the precinct, attracting local visitors as well as tourists, delivering significant economic benefits to Victoria.
Elite Park is expected to contribute approximately $246 million annually to the State economy and support 2,140 jobs across a range of sectors.
Employment opportunities are expected to be filled largely from nearby communities in the Hume and Brimbank municipalities.
Elite Park is designed with features that include a green pedestrian thoroughfare, large areas of generous landscaping, and links to existing bike paths and bus routes.
Pending approval, development will occur in stages over the next nine years.
Construction on the first stage is due to commence in 2025 and will include:
New road infrastructure connecting Mercer Drive and Airport Drive into the precinct
Earthworks, utilities and stormwater infrastructure
Large retail and outdoor leisure destinations
We expect the first operators to be opening by the end of 2026.
Further stages will deliver premium entertainment, hospitality, retail and leisure attractions. Elite Park will be an exciting destination for locals and visitors.
Melbourne Airport will prioritise traffic management during construction and as businesses open. Traffic assessments have guided the approach to managing traffic flow, which will occur at each phase of development to ensure that access routes can accommodate construction and visitor traffic.
The Tullamarine Freeway and Airport Drive will have direct access to Elite Park so that local communities are not adversely affected.
Thorough surveys of flora and fauna have found no presence of state or federally significant species other than Natural Temperate Grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain (NTGVVP). NTGVVP is a threatened ecological community protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) so its removal will require that Melbourne Airport secure and manage compensatory ‘offsets’.
Elite Park is highlighted in the Melbourne Airport Master Plan 2022 as an important non-aviation development precinct. Melbourne Airport has prepared a Preliminary Draft Major Development Plan (MDP) to support our community consultation and eventual application for Ministerial approval of the proposal.
The Preliminary Draft MDP was available for members of the public to consider and make comment, and the closing date for submissions was 20 December 2024. We are now collating the submissions received as part of our application to the federal government.
The Preliminary Draft MDP can be downloaded via the link below.
There was an information session open to local community members on Thursday 10 October 2024 at URBNSURF, 309 Melrose Drive, Melbourne Airport.
Melbourne Airport also hosted a community pop up at the Tullamarine Community House, 30 Carol Grove, Tullamarine, on Wednesday 23 October 2024. For further details, please visit the Melbourne Airport community pop ups page.
If you have any questions about this proposed development, please contact community@melair.com.au.
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