Overview
Location: 101 Armstrong Street North, Ballarat
Victorian Government investment contribution: $47.8 million
Developer: Development Victoria
Architect: John Wardle Architects
Builder: Kane Constructions and Nicholson Construction joint venture
Tenants: Victorian Government – various agencies
Number of Victorian Government public servants: Up to 1,000
Jobs created during construction: 500
Opened: April 2021
Background
The Ballarat GovHub has capacity for up to 1000 Victorian Government employees. It's helping to revitalise a major part of the Ballarat CBD, generate long-term jobs growth, increase business confidence and further private sector investment.
The ‘Civic Hall Site’, which sits on Crown land, was developed in partnership with the City of Ballarat.
Development Victoria managed the development of the new government office within the Civic Hall Site in partnership with Regional Development Victoria, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and City of Ballarat. This partnership contributed in creating a community, government and commercial precinct in the Ballarat CBD.
The Victorian Government worked with Council to improve CBD car parking and offset the losses of parking at the Civic Hall Site. This included providing $2 million towards the City of Ballarat's Car Parking Action Plan to provide for a minimum of 1000 new carparks to replace the 275 spaces currently on the Civic Hall Site.
The Ballarat GovHub was completed in April 2021 and created up to 500 jobs during construction.
The building
The GovHub design includes:
- An active ground floor space, incorporating the bricks and masonry theme of the Civic Hall precinct
- a glass conservatory linking the Civic Hall to the GovHub
- a reconstructed lower hall space for multi-purpose use
- five storeys of office space with a strong visual connection to the Ballarat CBD
- two levels of basement car parking offering around 220 car parks
- end-of-trip facilities to encourage walking and cycling.