Construction of a retail and recreation precinct that dwarfs Melbourne’s biggest shopping centre will start in Craigieburn early next year.
Known as Humex, the precinct will be built by construction and development company JTX on 32-hectares on the Hume Highway.
The development boasts the southern hemisphere’s largest children’s indoor play centre, one of the biggest medical centres in Victoria, homemaker retailers, a supermarket, service station, a childcare centre and a 12-storey hotel.
It will also feature a building material display centre, comprising five-levels of retail display suites for home fixture and fitting businesses.
JTX chief executive Anthony Elcheikh said there is no other development like Humex in Victoria.
He said the building material display centre would be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
“It will have more tenancies than Chadstone…it will be 30 times the size of Bunnings,” he said.
“It will bring businesses from China to Hume to display their products and attract people from all over Australia and New Zealand to the City of Hume.”
Mr Elcheikh said Humex was seven-years in the making, with Hume council granting a permit for the site in November last year.
The precinct, which is bordered by the highway, Hume Freeway and Amaroo Road, is expected to cost $650 million to construct and take between three-five years to complete.
It will be built in four stages, with stage one to begin in the next six months.
The first stage will comprise the service station, supermarket, medical centre, bottle shop and big box retailers.
Mr Elcheikh said he had designed the development to meet the needs of the community.
“The community has grown so much but the services and infrastructure never grew in line with it,” he said.
“This is giving people the opportunity to do everything they want to do close to home.
“This is driven by the needs of the people.”
