A rival developer has moved to fast-track a shopping centre planned for Denman Prospect in the Molonglo Valley following delays to the construction of a shopping centre in the neighbouring suburb of Coombs.
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Capital Estates Developments managing director Stephen Byron said the Denman Prospect shops were originally planned to be opened in 2019 but he was confident they would now be opened by late 2017.
Mr Byron said the move to speed up the Denman Prospect shops was a direct response to delays affecting the start of construction to the Coombs shopping centre, with its developer, Renato Cervo, still trying to get approval for its design from the Environment and Planning Directorate.
Mr Cervo had hoped to have the Coombs centre open this winter but has had his development application for the project knocked back twice by the directorate and a stop-work order placed over the site by Access Canberra until approvals are given.
Part of the reason for the knock-backs for the Coombs centre has been that its design is not up to scratch, according to the planning authorities.
Capital Estate Developments, meanwhile, sees the Snow family progress from its successful Canberra airport and precinct developments into residential development, responsible for releasing the first stages of the new suburb of Denman Prospect, accounting for 2000 of its planned 4000 dwellings.
Mr Byron said the Denman Prospect shops would still need to have a development application approved, which included opening up any proposal for public comment, but he was confident they would get the green light.
He said the "ongoing cooperation of the LDA and planning authorities has facilitated the likely opening of this centre in late 2017".
"We've worked closely with them in designing the whole of Denman Prospect and where we've had issues, we've had meetings with them and got clear direction from them," he said.
"We've still got to go through the process, but one thing we are interested in is doing a high-quality design and if we do that, our view is ACTPLA is likely to approve it. We're going to do a design that complies."
The Denman Prospect local centre will provide convenience shopping of about 2500 square metres of gross floor area and include a specialised supermarket, childcare, community use and a range of outlets such as hairdressing, cafes and professional services.
The shops will be adjacent to the east-west arterial road for access on Holborow Avenue overlooking Cravens Creek.
The design for the Denman Prospect shops would, like the airport, include public art, extensive landscaping and contemporary design.
"The suburbs in the Molonglo Valley are really high-quality suburbs and they deserve and need to get high-quality, modern retail shopping facilities," Mr Byron said.
Denman Prospect is located just north of the existing suburbs in the Molonglo Valley, Wright and Coombs, which already have an estimated almost 2600 people living in them with no local shops as yet.
"There's a need for this to be done quickly," Mr Byron said. "There's a desire from us to meet the community need.
"Where we've got the local shopping centre, it can plug into a road that's already built very quickly and easily, which means rather than taking 12 months to do the civil infrastructure we can within three to four months start construction of the shopping centre itself.
"The reality is this will see them have shops by late 2017."
The shopping centre will have attached residential dwellings. An estate development plan had already been lodged "six months ahead of schedule and thus should be in a position to commence civil works on Stage 1B in December '16 rather than the planned July 2017".
The shopping centre should be finished soon after the first Denman Prospect residents move into their homes. The first buyers are expected to start building their homes in June.
Mr Byron said he was in talks with likely tenants for the shopping centre including some "innovative cafe owners", a childcare operator and a supermarket.
