Kingston High School Year 9 students were welcomed on a site tour of Spring Farm Village on Wednesday, October 22 by Tipalea Partners CEO Scott Spanton and Fairbrother On-Site Manager Heath Lovell, in collaboration with the Beacon Foundation.
This partnership with Beacon Foundation allows students to gain insights into career pathways in construction and retail.
Construction is progressing well on this shopping precinct, located on Channel Highway opposite Bunnings Kingston, with only five rain day delays so far.
“Out of a 14-month program that’s pretty good,” Mr Spanton said.
“We’re on track to open in May 2026.”
Mr Spanton and Mr Lovell took the students through to what will become Coles’ largest supermarket in Kingston, which was buzzing with a range of construction workers.
“We get around 70 to 100 people on site each day,” Mr Lovell said.
“Up to six different trades all working together under the same roof.”
One of the students asked Mr Spanton about the shade sail that tore free at the Glebe Hill Village shopping centre in Howrah, also a Tipalea Partners’ development, at the start of October.
Strong winds saw the shade sail come loose and land on several vehicles.
The shade sail had been damaged by a McDonald’s delivery truck several months before, with the unexpectedly strong gusts of October 5 ripping it completely off.
Mr Spanton said they will be using this experience to adjust the design of the shade sails planned for Spring Farm Village.
“What we’ve learnt from that is to divide the sails up into three sections,” Mr Spanton said.
Mr Spanton said that there are only three tenants left to lease at Spring Farm Village, all food related.
Their current challenge is to find a tenant for the café space planned to sit just in front of the Coles supermarket.
“It’s hard to find a café tenant when there’s so many in Kingston already,” Mr Spanton said, acknowledging that it can be daunting for small business owners to secure a tenancy in a shopping centre that is still being built.
About 85 per cent of tenancies have been leased already, including a sushi and Greek restaurant, laundromat and butcher’s.
Mr Spanton and Mr Lovell pointed out where some of these businesses will be located in the shopping centre to the Kingston High School students.
“There’ll be about 400 jobs available here after we’ve opened,” Mr Spanton said.
Mr Lovell gave the students some pointers on how to improve their chances at employment and discussed the merit of taking on work experience with Fairbrother.
In some cases, work experience has then led on to apprenticeships with Fairbrother, who help front the cost of the apprentices’ toolboxes (valued at approximately $4000).
Several of the students on the tour expressed interest in pursuing this route.
