New concert venue for Melbourne revealed as Arden plans leak early

A 5000-seat entertainment venue and a new University of Melbourne campus will be built on government-owned land in Melbourne’s inner-north, under a $7 billion redevelopment that proposes to deliver the music arena two years before the first home.

The plan, which also includes a soccer campus in partnership with Melbourne Victory, was inadvertently published on a staging website belonging to winning bid developer, Hamton-Hostplus, revealing plans before an official announcement expected this month.

The disclosure comes after The Age revealed, in August, that the super fund-backed consortium had been selected to develop the Arden urban renewal precinct, despite a rival bid promising to deliver thousands of homes 15 years sooner.

During the shortlist process, a defeated bid, led by Lendlease, pitched to build more than 5000 homes by 2037. The Hamton-Hostplus bid offered slightly more houses, but put forward a suggested completion date of 2052.

The Age also revealed that initial tender documents, issued in 2025, reserved about two hectares of the site, which is 1.5 kilometres from the CBD, for an entertainment venue.

The newly exposed “Arden Central masterplan” shows Live Nation will build and operate a 5000-seat, purpose-built venue besides Arden Station, which can host up to 100 concerts and events each year “attracting international, national and local artists”.

“Its direct public transport access will make it easy for audiences from across Melbourne to attend, while also helping attract interstate visitors and international tourists to Arden Central,” spruiks the plans.

According to a published timeline, construction on the venue is expected to begin in 2028, and is due for completion in 2030. The first residential buildings are not due to be completed until 2032, with a second residential development to follow in 2033.

The timeline raises questions about the priority being given to housing on the 13.5-hectare government-owned site, which state Labor has repeatedly promoted as a flagship urban renewal site capable of delivering thousands of homes in Melbourne’s inner north.

A spokesperson for the Victorian opposition accused the Carroll government of “putting a new music venue ahead of more homes for Victorians”.

“Labor’s priorities are all wrong,” the spokesperson said.

The proposed precinct will eventually house 10,000 residents in 5400 homes.

The consortium’s website outlines construction milestones to 2033 but does not disclose when the entire residential development would be completed.

In 2022, Live Nation developed a proposal for a new 3500-capacity live music space in Docklands that would host more than 100 shows a year, costed at about $20 million. They were seeking a financial contribution of $5 million from the state government.

Under the leaked masterplan, the University of Melbourne will also expand into the precinct with its Melbourne School of Design (MSD) to be housed on the site.

It says MSD will benefit from a “a long-term, developer-funded research partnership” and act as a “living lab for nature-based excellence ... providing a platform for students, researchers, industry and the community to collaborate on research and education”.

It comes four years after the University of Melbourne was named as a partner in the state government’s original plans to transform the site into a major hospital and biomedical research hub, and house the higher education facility’s new medical and health sciences school.

The government then abandoned plans to expand the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals at Arden, citing electromagnetic interference from the Metro Tunnel.

Melbourne Victory Football Club will also establish a new “Arden Campus” in the precinct which will include a “hub for women’s and youth female pathway programs”.

The site will also include a long sought-after secondary school for the area and has also been “identified” for a future government primary school.

It will also include eight parks, 5.5 hectares of open space, a supermarket, speciality shops and a childcare.

Development Victoria launched the market process for Arden Central in June 2024 seeking a private sector partner to transform the government-owned site, with at least 10 per cent affordable housing.

The state government and the developer were contacted for comment.

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