Melbourne’s second Chinatown is coming to Box Hill
Golden Age Group has announced that its $450m Sky Village development in Box Hill will feature Melbourne’s second Chinatown.
The group’s managing director Jeff Xu said the three-storey complex would be “a modern expression of Chinese culture and traditions” and that it would satisfy demand in the fast growing suburb – in which 35.4% of residents have Chinese ancestry according to the 2016 Australian census – for “an iconic, mixed-use residential, lifestyle, entertainment and dining precinct”.
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“Much like China in recent decades, Box Hill has undergone a period of immense transformation, to emerge as a cultural, tourist and economic destination in its own right,” he said.
“Holding the crown of Melbourne’s second CBD, New Chinatown will help support and facilitate the continued growth of Box Hill’s city centre, while creating more than 1,000 jobs for the local community and providing a thriving economic, entertainment and cultural precinct that also acknowledges the rich history of the area and its inhabitants.”
The new precinct will feature 12,000 square metres of retail space, a 1,500-square-metre childcare centre, a Chinese language school, Chinese and Western medicine clinics, and a 4,000-square-metre hawker hall that its creators say will take design cues from New York’s Italian marketplace Eataly.
Its architecture will pay homage to China’s past dynasties by incorporating pagodas, floating walkways, and winding pathways. But Xu says the overall design will be more modern than its CBD predecessor.
“Melbourne’s existing Chinatown in the CBD is steeped in rich history as one of the oldest Chinatowns outside of China,” he said.
“New Chinatown will craft its own identity as the intersection between ancient traditions and modern China; a melting pot where history and the contemporary come together.”
Scheduled for completion in 2022, the development is the property developer’s third in Box Hill alone.
