Privately-owned developer Orchard Property Group has completed its purchase of a 34-hectare development-ready site at Ripley in Ipswich.
The property, at 160 Daleys Road Ripley, also includes an existing development approval for a new masterplanned community with 426 lots, situated in Brisbane’s growing western corridor.
Orchard purchased the site, located in the Ripley Valley priority development area, from a group of investors for $11 million.
Orchard plans to reconfigure the existing approval to increase the yield to 440 lots ahead of its launch in 2020.
The Ripley Valley PDA, located about five kilometres south-west of the Ipswich CBD and around 50 kilometres from Brisbane CBD, was declared a PDA in 2010 and covers 4680 hectares.
The property, negotiated by Ray White Special Projects’ Tony Williams and Mark Creevey, has been under contract for more than 12 months, and is due to settle in late August.
“The Ripley Valley is one of the largest urban growth areas in Australia and will eventually be home to a new city nearly as large as Toowoomba with a population of 120,000 people and 50,000 new homes,” Orchard Property Group managing director Brent Hailey said.
The new project will be Orchard’s second largest, following its $120 million 650-lot Pebble Creek project at South Maclean.
The company recently completed sales at PineVue at Maudsland, spanning 110 lots.
In July, Japanese-backed developer Sekisui House revealed its $1.5 billion masterplan vision for Ripley Town Centre, a development spanning a 40-hectare site. With stage one of the Ripley Town Centre constructed by Hutchinson Builders.
Orchard will also upgrade Binnies Road in Ripley providing access to a number of properties at the western end of the Ripley PDA, after securing a $7.2 million Catalyst Infrastructure Program grant from Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) which.