$26m shopping centre proposal for West Perth

Woolworths’ private development arm has lodged plans to build a $26.5 million shopping centre on Murray Street adjacent to the former Princess Margaret Hospital site.

Fabcot, Woolworths Group’s retail development arm, has sought approval to demolish the car park adjacent to the hospital site to make way for a five-storey development featuring a supermarket, liquor store, retail, food outlets, a medical centre, pharmacy, childcare centre and a gym. 

According to the development application, lodged by urban planner Urbis, the mixed-use development would span more than 14,000 square metres of the site on the corner of Murray Street and Thomas Street in West Perth.

Business News understands Fabcot purchased the site from the state government with the intention of developing a supermarket to support its $227 million Subi East precinct plan, which will transform the 35,000sqm former hospital site into an inner-city village with more than 2,000 residential dwellings.

The development of the precinct, bounded by Subiaco Oval, Bob Hawke College and Mueller Park, is a key part of the state government's 20-year master plan to provide diverse housing opportunities alongside Subiaco’s shopping and entertainment precincts, the new Bob Hawke College, and public recreation areas.

The precinct is expected to attract about $1 billion in private investment.

The City of Perth has recommended that the Local Development Assessment Panel approve the proposal when it meets next week, subject to a suite of conditions pertaining to the design, landscaping and waste management at the site.

Woolworths has beebn busy on the property development front as of late.

That includes the group's recently approved $120 million multi-storey development in Scarborough.

Public comment has also just closed for a two-storey mixed-use development, anchored by a Woolworths, along Dunn Bay Road in Dunsborough, with planning bodies to assess that project in the coming months.