The $268 million redevelopment of the Queen Victoria Market is expected to bring in $1 billion in economic benefits according to a new business case for the precinct.on Thursday which it said would create nearly 15,000 new jobs and attract 18 million visitors a year. But community groups and some traders remain opposed to the plans, with one saying it will sanitise the market, turning it into “a supermarket but outdoors”.
Last year the Queen Victoria Market made a loss of $1.7 million as pandemic restrictions saw visitor numbers drop by 39 per cent to 4.8 million visitors for the year.The redevelopment includes improving the market’s historic sheds, new facilities for traders, a food court, a library and community hub, almost 10,000 homes and creating a large open air park.
Rosa Ansaldo has been selling fruit and vegetables at Queen Victoria Market for 35 years at Rospaul Fruiterers and said traders were not being listened to in the redevelopment process, with newly installed skylights on the sheds causing produce to dehydrate.“I believe you will lose the whole spirit and the actual iconic meaning of the market, the authenticity of the traders, it’ll be all pristine they want everything the same looking,” she said. “It will be like a supermarket but outdoors.
President Mary-Lou Howie said construction was killing the market with high-rise buildings set to overshadow the market and people would not come back.
carawaters your headline in the paper is that the development is tipped to bring in $1b. that is not investigative journalism, its reading a press release. do your job and investigate the figures.
carawaters Melbourne is decaying and dying under Dictator Andrews & co. . That's why thousands are leaving.!