Innovatia

There are consistent themes that make the City of Melbourne PPPs different: • All proposals are led from within council by an in-house team of experts. The city contributes to the partnership by using its existing assets. • The city shares in the risks but puts in place mechanisms to ensure this risk is managed and reasonable. This usually means the city retains equity in the pro- cess until the risk is minimised. • The process of finding a partner is always competitive, with quality design and pub- lic benefit high on the selection criteria. • The city acts as an intelligent client through its in-house team, and recognis- es that successful partnerships take time to deliver and implement, often bridging two terms of office by the councillors. • The city started small and built confi- dence internally and with the develop- ment industry. • Partnerships need to be aligned with the council’s goals, such as affordable hous- ing, sustainability and repair of the city fabric. These goals were established in the City of Melbourne’s 1985 Strategy Plan, which sought to: – bring back people to live in the city, so adding density and mixed use; – favour pedestrians and public transport over cars, so improving connectivity while giving back more space to the people; –remove all surface-level carparks, so en- suring an excellent street experience with a high-quality public realm that favours walking; – build on the city’s physical attributes

and local character, such as the laneways, bluestone and high-quality open spaces. When the PPP program started in the late 1980s, the city had limited finances. While there were funds for the basics, the more am- bitious projects needed partners in order to

be realised. The first two projects were rela- tively conventional. Cafe L’Incontro A small open space on the corner of Little Col- lins and Swanston Streets was populated by more pigeons than people. The plan was to

design – in-house – a café that would be el- evated above the public space, providing a comfortable place to sit overlooking the re- cently pedestrianised Swanston Street. The cafe provided an active edge to the space, which was contained by an Akio Makigawa sculpture . The concept was put to the mar- ket in 1993/94 on the basis that the successful bidder would secure a lease over the site – in this case, 30 years – after which the develop- The original site was a surface-level carpark that accommodated an old house and 110 parking spaces. The proposal was to go to market for an underground carpark with 215 short-stay spaces. The strata above the slab would be for residential development. A special requirement was that the final development should reinstate the two lan- eways that had been compromised by the demolition to make way for the existing car- park. The city achieved all its requirements, with the extra parking welcomed by retail- ers and the repaired neighbourhood appre- ciated by local residents. The city gained a quality carpark that has returned steady revenue for more than 20 years. ment would revert to the city. Tyne Elgin Street Carpark “The original principle of PPPs is that all parties should benefit from the partnership.”

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INNOVATIA

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