TABLE 1. INITIAL ASSUMPTION... WHAT EXPERIENCE REVEALED...
Greater certainty was needed before committing.
Rent was simply the return Council received from the asset.
Flexible leasing primarily created ambiguity.
The building was the primary asset.
The cost of learning needed to be reduced while confidence developed.
Rent became a mechanism for attracting private capital into a public asset.
Flexible leasing attracted the businesses the ecosystem needed while requiring other ways to build investor confidence.
The economic activity, relationships and enterprise that emerged became the real value.
Arguably, BRUDI is no longer simply a regenerated building; it is becoming part of Merri-bek ' s economic development infrastructure.
> Take this back to your organisation <
Success would come from executing a well-defined plan.
The greatest risk was making the wrong decision.
Success emerged because the partnership kept learning as circumstances changed.
Leaving an underperforming asset unchanged also carried significant economic and community risk.
The next time your organisation discusses an underutilised civic asset, resist the temptation to jump straight to the masterplan or business case. Instead, ask a different set of questions.
Six years of working on this project together changed a number of assumptions both organisations had brought to the project( see Table 1).
DREAM THE DREAM That final observation led to a valuable insight from Chris Cheal while preparing this article. When asked what he would tell another council if they called tomorrow and said,“ We ' ve got an underutilised asset and we ' re not quite sure how to proceed,” Cheal ' s first answer was,“ Dream the dream … we are in economic development: so, try and think like an entrepreneur.”
Cheal was not suggesting councils abandon governance or become property developers. Quite the opposite. His point was that economic development begins by recognising what a place could become, before working patiently to create the conditions that allow others to contribute. Think like an entrepreneur, but remember councils are custodians of public assets and public trust: involve Property and Risk departments, measure outcomes, report annually. Proceed with rigour, because there are risks in trying to do something great, but also risks in sitting on our hands while opportunities quietly pass by.
Cheal ' s point about the risk of“ sitting on our hands” is perhaps best illustrated by Nutromics. They began as a fledgling medtech business looking for affordable space to translate an idea into something commercially viable. Had BRUDI not existed, that opportunity may never have emerged in Merri-bek at all. Before building its own capability, Nutromics had to source aptamers from Singapore, with turnaround times exceeding twenty days and a real risk that strands would arrive damaged or deficient, delaying their research. Today, one of Australia ' s few dedicated aptamer synthesis laboratories operates on site at BRUDI, producing the engineered strands of DNA that give Nutromics ' diagnostic technology its ability to bind to specific biological targets. That local capability has removed the offshore dependency, strengthened Australia ' s sovereign biotechnology base and has the potential to connect local researchers with nearby institutions in Melbourne ' s Parkville Biomedical Precinct.
Arguably, BRUDI is no longer simply a regenerated building; it is becoming part of Merri-bek ' s economic development infrastructure. Not infrastructure in the traditional sense of roads and bridges, but infrastructure that supports enterprise formation, research translation, investment attraction, collaboration and innovation, continuing to create economic value long after the refurbishment itself has been completed. Like any other piece of civic infrastructure, its value now lies not simply in what it is, but in what it enables.
None of that was fully visible when the project began. It emerged because a council and a private partner were prepared to navigate uncertainty together, make a series of deliberate trade-offs and build the trust that allowed opportunity to compound over time. Perhaps that is what Cheal really meant when he encouraged other councils to“ Dream the dream.”
• Could this asset become part of our economic development infrastructure rather than simply another property to manage?
• Who else needs to be part of the conversation? Economic Development, Property, Planning, Strategy, Finance, Community Development and Risk all see different opportunities and constraints. What could emerge if they designed the opportunity together rather than sequentially?
• Could a different partnership structure attract private capital while reducing the cost of learning for everyone involved?
• Which assumptions about risk, investment or governance deserve to be challenged?
• Most importantly, if we succeed, what might emerge that none of us can confidently predict today?
BRUDI attracted the attention of the Governor of Victoria, the Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, and a growing number of councils, not because it followed a perfect masterplan, but because it demonstrated what can happen when public institutions, private enterprise and community ambition pull in the same direction. Sometimes the greatest opportunity in economic development is not a better building; it is creating the conditions for institutions to work together in ways they haven ' t before.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADAM TREVASKUS Adam Trevaskus is the founder and CEO of Civic Collective and former Managing Director of Impact Neighbourhoods, where he led the development and regeneration of BRUDI in partnership with Merri-bek City Council. Civic Collective works with organisations that shape public life, helping them fulfil their purpose, understand the direction their systems are moving and navigate change and complexity.
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