DevelopmentWA has approved Edith Cowan University’s city campus proposal, with a contractor to build the $695 million project to be selected in February.
The city campus will house ECU’s creative industry, technology and business disciplines near Yagan Square in the Perth City Link precinct.
“ECU City will definitively reshape the Perth CBD. It will be unlike any other university in Australia,” ECU vice chancellor Steve Chapman said.
He said 9,000 students and staff would use the precinct from 2025.
“The campus will create new vibrancy in the Perth CBD and generate new opportunities and benefits for local businesses,” Professor Chapman said.
Early works are due to start in the second quarter of 2022.
“We look forward to the construction phase of this project and the creation of one of the most dynamic, innovative and technologically advanced university campuses in the southern hemisphere,” Professor Chapman said.
The project will receive $245 million from the federal government, and $150 million from the state government, with the remainder funded by the university.
The approval comes just weeks after Infrastructure Australia raised big questions over the project’s expected benefit.
Business News revealed in November that the independent body was not confident the project would deliver value for money.
The benefits were likely overestimated, Infrastructure Australia said.
