Greater Bendigo commercial projects confront headwinds as applications stall in early stages

Prime Urban Group finished Stage One of its $55m Prime Business Park at 8-16 Rohs Road in East Bendigo this month, handing over more than 10,000sq m of workspace that includes 12 office suites, 23 warehouse units, two factory spaces and a central café.

The completion arrives as Greater Bendigo records an industrial vacancy rate of just 0.5 per cent, the lowest in recent records, which has pushed demand for new space yet also exposed bottlenecks in approvals and construction sequencing that slow the broader pipeline.

Stage Two begins while occupancy pressures mount

Initial works on Stage Two of the same East Bendigo site started after the December 2024 launch of the overall project, following the 12-month build period that delivered Stage One. The full park is expected to support 250 to 300 workers and is already close to full occupancy, a sign that limited supply is driving leasing even as developers juggle rising material costs and sequencing delays across multiple sites.

That same low vacancy figure has encouraged further proposals, yet it has not removed the regulatory steps that keep some applications on hold.

Retail and office proposals remain at early review points

A $12m retail hub planned for the Midland Highway and Howard Street intersection in Epsom sits on the Greater Bendigo City Council’s desk with no decision issued, a direct result of the application’s early status. Separately, a four-storey office building with a penthouse has been lodged for 52 Queen Street in central Bendigo, adding to the city’s higher-density commercial pipeline without any confirmed timeline for council assessment.

These early-stage lodgements illustrate the headwinds that continue to affect project delivery this year, even as the Prime Business Park demonstrates that completed space is absorbed quickly. Developers and council officers will next focus on progressing the outstanding applications through standard review processes without any fixed dates yet released.