ADF Single LEAP 2 All Mainland States and Territories, Australia

Plenary Group is the project sponsor, equity investor and financial arranger for the project.

Location: All Australian mainland States and Territories
Client: Australian Commonwealth Government's Department of Defence
Value (NPV): A$900 million
Builder: Built Environs, Pindan, Richard Crookes Constructions, Sitzler, Watpac
Architect: Woods Bagot
Services: ESS Support Services World Wide
Financial Close: June 2011
Completion Date: 1st Quarter 2014
Contract Terms: 33 years, Design-Build-Finance-Maintain

The project has ensured the apartments suit modern contemporary studio accommodation, including self contained en suite, private balconies, kitchenettes and undercover carparking with adjacent storage.

On-base socialisation is facilitated through the provision of recreation pavilions for defence force personnel and their visitors.

Robust construction to meet the required structural 50 year design life has been achieved, and an efficient life cycle capacity will allow a 30% improvement on water efficiency benchmarks, and a 20% improvement on the energy efficiency requirements of the BCA (2006).

Innovation was displayed at both a consortium and a contractual level to coordinate a consistency in approach to design, delivery and management across 14 geographically distinct sites, working with five separate local construction contractors, most of whom are new to PPP projects.

Plenary Living coordinated a centralised approach to the design process, to ensure that design and construction innovation was applied, to adjust an otherwise consistent design and construction methodology, to address both site specific variances, as well as geographic and climactic influences.

Job Creation

Over a three year construction phase the Commonwealth's commitment to upgrade Defence accommodation will directly create some 1,550 jobs nationally. The jobs will be spread across every mainland State and Territory and will be largely located in regional Australia.

The project provides a tremendous opportunity to involve five separate regional builders, and thereby open the PPP market to a wider range of participants. The builders report that the project has come at a time that was allowing them to continue to maintain employment outcomes.