Western Bulldogs partner in Footscray Hospital childcare centre
Artist’s renders shows the Kool Beanz childcare centre set to open in partnership with the Western Bulldogs at the new Footscray Hospital.
Melbourne tots will be getting visits from AFL players and running around a Western Bulldogs footy field play area at the city’s newest childcare centre this November.
The AFL club is partnering with childcare provider Kool Beanz for a new centre as part of developer Plenary’s $60m commercial building linked to the $1.5bn Footscray Hospital healthcare hub’s redevelopment.
In addition to childcare, it will connect kids with dedicated art and STEM rooms, a library, a Japanese language program and a Zen garden — plus the Western Bulldogs football field play area.
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It’s the second such site for Kool Beanz who have already established a child care centre partnered with the Gold Coast Suns in Carrara, Queensland.
Kool Beanz chief executive officer Bruce Coulson said the childcare centre was scheduled to open in November and was intended to support both hospital workers and the wider community.
“Partnering with the Western Bulldogs, we’ll occasionally have players visiting from the club that will come in and might do a cooking class with the kids, they might do reading time or on the playground,” Mr Coulson said.
Beyond the childcare spot, the commercial building will have 20 more tenancies across its 9000sq m of space adjoining the Footscray Hospital precinct, which is expected to be operational in February 2026.
The $1.5bn new Footscray Hospital is taking shape. A $60m commercial building is being delivered and managed by Plenary Group as part of the precinct.
Footscray Hospital Project Chair Kelvyn Lavelle said 17 retail and health businesses were confirmed for the precinct.
Agents from CBRE and Fitzroys are managing inquiries for the remaining food and beverage space, showroom and specialist clinics spaces.
Priority consideration is being given to local women’s health, physiotherapy, specialist consultants, mental health consulting, wellness and recovery, life science and research, optometry and pediatric businesses.
Among the confirmed tenants, Little Social Cafe is run by local social enterprise Youth Projects and provides young people with hands-on skills and mentoring from industry experts, providing young people in Melbourne’s west to build gain key employment skills and work experience.
Artist’s renders shows the Kool Beanz childcare centre set to open in partnership with the Western Bulldogs at the new Footscray Hospital.
Profits from the cafe will be reinvested into Youth Projects’ youth and homelessness programs.
There will be nine cafes across the precinct, along with a HealthSmart Pharmacy, a gift store, general store, gym, a GP, medical imaging and pathology and a vascular clinic.
Brand names will include Shuji Sushi, Alleyway Kitchen, Zuppa and Milk & Moss.
Mr Lavelle said the commercial building was designed to open the precinct to the community, along with a village green.
“Not only should it be easy for patients, doctors and visitors to get in and out, but it should be easy for the local neighbourhood to move through the precinct, to get from one end to the other, because it’s a huge precinct, but also allowed VU students to get from Geelong Rd through to the University on Ballarat Rd,” he said.
The $1.5bn new Footscray Hospital is taking shape. A $60m commercial building is being delivered and managed by Plenary Group as part of the precinct.
The commercial project was a $60m investment from Plenary Group and tenants, including $40m in construction for the building, Mr Lavelle said.
The new Footscray Hospital, which is being delivered by Plenary Health in partnership with the Victorian Government and Western Health, is the largest single investment in health infrastructure in Victoria.
It will include more than 500 beds, enabling around 15,000 additional patients to be treated and around 20,000 more people to be seen by the emergency department each year.
“When it’s fully operations, you’re probably talking about 5000 people at any only time across the two in the precinct and the VU campus. That’s a strong footfall that attracts business.”
