An artist’s impression of the Canberra Business and Technology College development proposal in Gungahlin. Images: Judd Studio.
The private Canberra Business and Technology College has lodged plans for its proposed new vertical campus in Gungahlin as part of a two-building mixed-use development.
The $33 million project on the corner of Gungahlin Place and Camilleri Way (Block 4, Section 246) to the south of the Town Centre comprises eight and nine-storey buildings standing side by side with two levels of basement parking.
Both will have 865 square metres of ground-floor commercial space, but one will be a residential tower while the other will contain the campus where the college will consolidate its students, currently spread across several sites.
The nine-storey college building fronting Camilleri Way will also contain a 28-room motel and a rooftop restaurant and function room which will form part of the college’s training facilities.
A ground floor unit will have a commercial kitchen for training, five levels will house college classrooms, while the top three will contain the commercial accommodation and its restaurant.
The campus will cater for about 500 students and include administration offices, training rooms, counselling spaces, a computer lab, shared spaces for start-ups and a student lounge/common room.
The eight-storey apartment block on the western corner will contain 46 units, mostly one and two-bedroom units, but there are two three-bedroom units and one with four bedrooms.
College operator Akhilesh Arora said the project would allow the college to deliver all its courses on the one site, including a proposed cyber security course to meet the Federal Government’s goal of training 18,000 cyber security professionals over the next five years.
Another view of the proposal.
The college offers courses on management, business, commercial cookery, intensive English language, painting and decorating, carpentry, and building and construction to a mix of 60 per cent domestic and 40 per cent international students.
Mr Arora said that while the reopening of international travel was welcome, there was strong local demand for its courses, and cyber security would be locally focused.
“We want to train local people because if they want to go and work for Defence or ASIO, then they need local clearance,” he said.
The college is awaiting accreditation to train cyber security professionals, a process that will take about three years.
If needed, the college could extend its cyber security courses to another site (Block 12, Section 249) that it plans to develop nearby as possible serviced apartments for student accommodation.
Mr Arora expected huge demand for hospitality courses in the next two or three years.
The proposed development will provide 136 car parks in the basement, which will be accessed from Camilleri Way. Another driveway between the building will provide access for service and waste services.
Landscaping plans show a green edge, including planter boxes and deep-rooted deciduous trees.
Comment closes on the proposal on 28 February.
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