By Mikayla Van Loon
Fast food enthusiasts rejoice, plans for a McDonald’s, Taco Bell and KFC are in the works for Chirnside Park.
A vacant block of land on Maroondah Highway, located between Fletcher Road and East Ridge Drive near Dan Murphy’s, has had a development application submitted to Yarra Ranges Council on 14 January.
The proposed plan will see ten retail shops, three convenience restaurants, five shops and a food and drink premise built in this prime location.
Yarra Ranges Council has confirmed it received a planning application for the 266-268 Maroondah Highway location and Director of Planning, Design and Development Kath McClusky said the council is currently working with the applicant.
“[We] expect the application will be out on advertising in coming months,” Ms McClusky said.
“We encourage community members interested in this application to read the plans and make a submission on our ePlanning website.”
The property in question had previously been acquired and owned by German company Kaufland until they withdrew from Australia and sold all sites under its ownership.
Troon Group now own the three hectare property and have proposed to use a total of 11,607 square metres of land for the retail and food complex.
In draft documents, Troon Group have listed a number of suitable tenants for the spaces available including large format clothing or homewares, cafes, casual dining, gyms or fresh food produce stores.
The complex is meant to attract the 34,000 vehicles that pass the vacant site each day, particularly with the addition of American food chain Taco Bell.
This would be Taco Bell’s fifth food outlet in Melbourne and the first for the outer eastern suburbs.
Taco Bell initially opened its first store in Brisbane in 2017 and has now expanded throughout Australia.
Developers and planners expect the build to cost $15 million and could see 160 jobs created throughout the build and an extra 278 once the complex is operating.
Due to the estimated cost of the development, Ms McClusky said the application will be heard at a public council meeting later this year.
More to come.
