Cranes in the city skyline and team Geelong

Welcome to my final article of 2025, thanks to everyone who has had a read, shared some thoughts and offered encouragement. I appreciate the interest.

Last article I spoke of finishing the year on a positive note and acknowledging those leading the gains made in 2025 and the momentum gathering for 2026. Well, I am on a roll, with another positive take on our city and region.

I am also channelling a former state Premier (Jeff Kennett, I think) who stated that a city’s optimism and prosperity can be measured by “the number of cranes in the city skyline”.

With this as an indicator, we have a number of major projects in our region, providing a development pipeline, that are either:

1. Under construction

2. Approved ready to get started

3. Ready to go but awaiting approval

4. Publicly committed but in the pipeline

Categories three and four give us hope and a bit of excitement, especially when they include iconic sites such as Osborne House and Cunningham Pier or much needed sporting facilities such as the Armstrong Creek Sporting Hub and the Kardinia Park Precinct.

Most importantly, we have a number of category one and two developments that are significant projects. And even more importantly, they directly impact the revitalisation of our CBD.

These major under construction builds are:

*Convention Centre – an absolute game changer ready to roll in 2026 that will accelerate Geelong’s CBD reinvigoration, deliver unprecedented visitor numbers, encourage additional accommodation space, boost tourism, employ heaps of locals etc

*Barwon Health Women and Children’s Facility – a $500m+ facility that will not be completed until 2029, however, with construction under way it is now delivering immediate employment benefits

*Myers St Social/Affordable Housing Apartment Building – 11 storeys and 117 apartments due for completion shortly, will automatically swell the number of residential dwellers in our CBD population

*Novotel re-development – $75m upgrade adding an 11 storey tower to the existing hotel and increasing rooms from 134 to 243, huge impact on our CBD’s accommodation capacity and event space

*Social Housing Facility Marshall St and La Trobe Terrace – delivering 77 apartments in a four-storey complex – not quite in the CBD but pretty close.

Another great story for Geelong is the emerging leadership that has developed over the last 12 months. Key people are standing up and putting their voices and ideas forward, putting aside that anxiety or hesitation.

Another quote I like is that “Great Leaders, leave Great Leaders’’. People keep asking who is the next Frank Costa for Geelong. My answer is that Frank’s legacy is that he left behind an expectation for many of us to step up. Not just one voice. But many. The new leadership of Geelong is not a single person. It’s a movement. It is team Geelong.

And these leaders are being backed by great local businesses and advocacy groups such as the Committee for Geelong, Chamber of Commerce and our elected city councillors. For the first time in a long time, we are in unison. We have a plan, we know what we need and we are not afraid to ask for it. It is exciting to contemplate what we can achieve when we work together.

An example of this is the traction we are having with the Market Square/Geelong Economic Zone conversations. I can report that after many meetings, conducted by a variety of Geelong leaders, I think we will see some significant commitments to Geelong and our region throughout the next election cycle, from both sides! Whilst we all have a well-earned Christmas break, rest up and recoup, 2026 is going to be a great year for Team Geelong. We are going to kick goals together!

Wishing all our readers and followers a happy Christmas and hope you get to have a great family break.

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