Homepage Coffey International Ltd newsroom

Coffey Projects Kick Winning Goal with Punt Oval Redevelopment

Announcement posted by Coffey International Ltd 25 Aug 2011

Major upgrade provides elite facilities at Richmond Football Club

Richmond Football Club’s Punt Road Oval is now home to a striking redevelopment, project managed by Coffey Projects. The bold yellow and black metal sheet clad building houses the clubs new administration and training centre.

The $20 million project will bring enormous benefits to Richmond Football Club, which now has training and administrative facilities commensurate with an elite sporting club. The new facilities also place the club in a very good position to attract new players from 2012, when player free agency is introduced by the AFL.

The development will provide public access to function areas, a community gym, indoor sports centre, meeting rooms, lecture theatre and a new museum situated within the renovated Jack Dyer Grandstand.

The facility also aims to help close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians with the inclusion of the Australian Institute for Indigenous Learning and Skills Development, the Korin Gamadji Centre, which means ‘grow and emerge’. The Institute will offer education and employment opportunities to young people.

Coffey Projects were able to draw upon experience from working with Collingwood, St Kilda and Geelong AFL Football Clubs to add value to this project for Richmond Football Club. Some of these projects were occurring concurrently, lessons learned were able to be transferred in “real time” between projects.

Coffey Projects successfully managed the design and construction of the new iconic building in one of the busiest parts of Melbourne, working adjacent to a public park, while Richmond Football Club continued to operate. Under these circumstances, the project was still completed under budget, with the new building finished in time for a major fund raising event held earlier this year.

Coffey Projects Project Director Rob McFee said, “The building is outstanding, not only because of its striking architecture, but also the high quality football facilities it provides Richmond Football Club. It was a challenging project, but has delivered extremely gratifying outcomes.”

The project was jointly funded by the Richmond Football Club, Australian Football League, Federal and State Government and the City of Melbourne. The final stage will be the reconfiguring of the oval, which will commence following the 2011 AFL season.

Other companies involved in the project include the building contractor, Buxton Construction and the architects, Suters.