Geocon achieves impressive settlement rates in Belconnen residential project, Republic Precinct
The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it had on the off the plan apartment industry, namely the labour shortage and massive spike in construction costs, was navigated successfully by Canberra's leading developer Geocon.
Their Republic Precinct in Belconnen was the stand out, as the Nick Georgalis-led developer completed the $410 million project with a 98 per cent settlement rate of the 1267 apartments.
“Despite the challenges of the past few years, the vision of Republic has strongly connected with the community as an unrivalled urban lifestyle in the heart of Belconnen,” Geocon Managing Director Nick Georgalis says.
“What we have accomplished in the past four and a half years has been an incredible achievement for Geocon and Canberra, as a pathway forward to an increase in modernised development."
The Precinct, which dates back to 2017 when the plans were developed, also includes a 152-room hotel, 52 commercial tenancies, and 300 space public carpark. It now stands as ACT’s largest mixed-use precinct.
Five of Canberra’s tallest towers and Canberra's first glass towers, The Precinct used 80,000m3 of concrete, the equivalent to filling 35 Olympic- sized swimming pools, over 13,000 tonnes of reinforcement, the equivalent weight of 22 Airbus A380’s and more than 66,000m2 of façade, covering over 9 football fields.
“Utilising over 4,000 workers over the course of completion, Republic has been a massive project, one that we think is a huge step forward for the urbanisation of Belconnen,” says Geocon General Manager Damon Smith.
Geocon put together the same world-leading design team, Fender Katsalidis Architects and OCULUS, who created NewActon, to produce something really special.
Architect David Sutherland of Fender Katsalidis Architects said the presence of Republic would reinforce Lake Ginninderra as a recreational focus of Belconnen through the strengthening of linkages to its foreshores.
“Republic has been conceived as a further strengthening of the relationship of the city with the water," Sutherland said.
"In doing so the precinct will be an urban marker of this significant site at the confluence of the two arms of the lake.
"In its built form the composition of buildings is redolent of the unique topography of the locale - the hills and valleys, the sky and water."
Proving the achievement at Republic was not a one-off, the settlement success has been mirrored in Geocon’s Tuggeranong development, Aspen Village, with 96 per cent of properties achieving settlement.
The momentum from Republic and Aspen has seen Geocon’s next major precinct, WOVA, achieve 650 sales since launch, despite cautious market conditions.