Melbourne Airport’s “Elite Park” lures next Top Golf location
An artist’s impression of Elite Park, a proposed $475 million development on Melbourne Airport land.
Melbourne Airport wants to turn its disused land on Melbourne’s fringe into a sprawling entertainment and shopping precinct with a golf driving range, hotel, cinemas and restaurants.
The airport hopes the 32-hectare site, to be called Elite Park, will become a major tourist drawcard and expand the growing list of commercial uses on airport land that are unrelated to aviation, including surf park Urbnsurf, AFL club Essendon’s training base and the Hanrob pet hotel.
The airport’s owner, APAM, estimates it would cost $475 million and nine years to develop Elite Park, which would support 2140 jobs in areas such as retail and hospitality once finished.
The project would require federal government approval as it would be on Commonwealth-owned land Baji999 and involve the clearing of critically endangered grassland.
The Elite Park site occupies 32 hectares of undeveloped land between the Tullamarine Freeway and Airport Drive.
“The land is currently vacant and underutilised. The site’s greenfield status and large site area means there are few impediments to development, providing opportunity to attract large and/or unique anchor tenancies.”
US-based golf driving-range chain Topgolf is expected to open its first Melbourne centre there, the airport said.
The airport said it was encouraged by the runaway commercial success of Urbnsurf, Melbourne’s only surf park, which drew 332,000 visitors in 2023 and was one of the state’s 10 most-visited attractions.
