21 November 2018

DA lodged for $56m, eight-storey mixed-use Koko Molonglo development in Wright

| Ian Bushnell
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An artist’s impression of the Koko Molonglo development in Wright, from the DA.

Plans for the proposed eight-storey Koko Molonglo development in Wright include 158 residential units, a 100-room hotel, rooftop garden and lap pool, a 1500 square metre supermarket, five retail shops and basement parking.

A child care centre catering for 90 children, medical centre with seven practitioners and fast food restaurant is also planned.

Coombs residents, who have been urging action on the mostly completed but still empty shopping centre built by Renato Cervo only 100 metres away from the Koko site, will continue to feel their local shops will be a white elephant with a 1000 square metre IGA supermarket to open at the Denman Prospect shops in January.

They have accused the ACT Government of a planning failure in potentially allowing three supermarket sites in such close proximity to each other. The supermarket site in Coombs is only 1000 square metres and any tenant will struggle to compete with a 1500 square metre supermarket nearby.

Planning Minister Mick Gentleman has said Mr Cervo had two years from the start of building to finish the shopping centre, which gave him until early 2019. The timing of the opening of the building was then “a commercial decision”.

Publicity for Koko Molonglo promises the centre will have the supermarket and other retailers including a ‘hair salon, eateries, bike retailer and bike workshop’.

PK Nominees Development has lodged a development application for the nearly $56 million mixed-use development on Block 1, Section 38 on the corner of John Gorton Drive and Steve Irwin Avenue.

The DA says the company wants to surrender the Crown Lease and subdivide the land into seven Crown Leases.

The Coombs shops is only 100 metres away from the Koko site and still empty. Photo: Ian Bushnell

Development of the 1.5-hectare site will commence as soon as possible after approval and is planned to be delivered in two stages over an 18-24 month period.

Stage 1 will involve the construction of the building containing the supermarket and 158 unit apartments, undercroft parking, associated services and landscaping and the internal road network.

The hotel, undercroft car parking, visitor parking along the internal road, associated services and landscaping (including all other works not associated with Stage 1) will follow in Stage 2.

The DA says the stages will occur in tandem with the subdivision, which will facilitate the establishment of a community title scheme.

The residential component will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units, 16 of which will be adaptable, and configured to maximise solar amenity and privacy for dwellings, and preserve solar access for adjoining development.

Water storage tanks, air conditioning units, utility meters and clothes lines are to be integrated within the development.

Basement parking for the individual units amounts to 746 car spaces allocated to commercial and residences, including 16 adaptable car spaces and 40 visitor spaces.

The traffic report says the site is expected to generate traffic of 512 vehicles in the AM peak hour and 596 vehicles in the PM peak hour, although no computer analysis was done and inspection of the road network found there was adequate capacity to cope with traffic from the development.

Four access points are proposed – direct access from the Steve Irwin Avenue / Banjo Paterson Avenue roundabout; Two two-way access points along Gornall Street at the mid-blocks between Steve Irwin Avenue / Max Jacobs Avenue and Max Jacobs Avenue / John Gorton Drive service road and a one-way access point from the John Gorton Drive service road.

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@Lynne Audsley, medium density is 3 stories, not 8

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