Mt Hotham moves to capitalise on developer demand as snow dumps
Mount Hotham Resort Management has reignited the on-again, off-again process to develop a village core as it leverages the best start to a ski season for years in which more than a metre of snow has fallen since late May.
But this time the Victorian resort is taking a different approach. It is calling for expressions of interest from developers to build out four sites it controls over 3600 square metres in Hotham Central, with hopes of proposals that include a boutique hotel, other accommodation, quality retail and hospitality offerings.
It ran an expression of interest campaign in 2016 to develop a single site of about 1900 square metres, won by Belgrave Group, but the five-level, mixed-use proposal did not proceed because of issues over scale, cost and return on investment.
Property, planning and development director Lyndsey Jackman said the process had been simplified by subdividing the larger Corral car park and offering four smaller lots from 650 square metres to 1200 square metres.
The requirement to build a base building for resort management had also been removed.
Mr Jackman said the management board had assessed the best way forward and considered other development sites, a lengthy process because most are on Crown land controlled by the Victorian government and must be leased.
He said the alpine property market had benefitted from COVID-19 as people had holidayed at home rather than travelling overseas, and the development demand had “been going through the roof”.
“We have reflected on proposals put forward previously and [ways of] really harnessing that demand for local investment,” Mr Jackman said.
“Everyone has fallen in love with skiing locally again, and we’re seeing not just mum and dad investors buying apartments but developers coming in and developing smaller-scale residential.
“They might build a duplex, keep one for themselves and sell the other to cover costs. We’re seeing a really high demand at the moment. There’s appetite for new development and that’s what we’re capitalising on.”
The main goal with this and future development is to create a village core and more public space, he said.
“We’ve acknowledged that there’s a distinct lack of sense of arrival at Hotham,” Mr Jackman said.
“We’re never going to get away from the way the village is spread out. That geography is not going to change, you’re strung along a ridge line and exposed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t create a village hub, and that’s effectively what we’re trying to do here.”
Mr Jackman said the management board was keen to see a variety of proposals that include ground-floor commercial and nothing exceeding the five-storey height limit.
“Apart from these sites we have other greenfield sites, which we’ll be releasing in the next one to two years following this development.”
