Independent Property Developments, Big or Small, are Creative, Best In Class Food Precincts.

West Melbourne Waterfront Precinct by Perri Projects

Independent Property Developments, Big or Small, are Creative, Best In Class Food Precincts.

Future Food gets to work on large projects, and we love the city shaping scope of a big development. Yet some of the more interesting projects that we've been working on over the last 24-36 months have been those from private independent developers. 

The level of entrepreneurship, creativity, artistic direction, attention to detail and placemaking makes these vibrant projects and developments, truly exciting platforms to work with. Our recent partnership with companies like Perri Projects and Pellicano have allowed us to contribute to more boutique personalised projects. Creating a food strategy and operating model for these developments requires a subtle approach that considers each development through the perspective of its target users.

Key trends emerge from these ground-breaking projects such as incorporation of wellness and health, open space, alfresco dining & rooftop bars provide a level of invigoration and entrepreneurship that allows us to be creative with the strategic response.

Shaping these strategies responds not only to the architecture but to the aspiration of the developers, to develop lifestyle projects, more than just the next block of apartments with a coworking space. Food becomes integral to the personality of the building.

Our capability & big project experience allows us to provide the same methodology to boutique curated offers to provide any premium development the opportunity to become a best-in-class project that has distinct points of difference and is highly aligned to the need states and aspirations of its target market.

It provides more than a convenience brand or cafe and instead contributes to the destination of status of the development. Many of these “work-live-play” developments are in enviable locations on the edge of the CBD with large residential pockets surrounding them.

The food and hospitality provides the key to activation of these sites day and night, not only capitalising on the inherent populations but also providing amenity for passing commuters and existing residential communities. 

Future Food approaches these projects with the same multidisciplinary approach incorporating architectural and base-design considerations; evaluation of the competitive landscape (the opportunities and constraints of the site); the business case and financial feasibility that informs what is possible from a financial perspective and how best to attain that level of revenue potential; and lastly by providing a creative overarching food strategy that responds to these components and provides a multi layered food and hospitality approach for the little daily rituals or an occasion to remember.

Key success drivers are provided by drilling down into the user-group experience profiles, understanding who is the target market; when do they need food or hospitality; what type of food and hospitality is it; and what kind of experiences are they seeking? In responding to these questions, we consider a range of data including our own proprietary developed software, client provided data, international benchmarking report subscriptions, and location intelligence software. The combination of these platforms provides us with a detailed understanding of every location we work with.

We understand each project's relationship to its core competitors and regional benchmarks, the crossover of spending that may occur between these different locations, the demographic profiles of those people in the area at any given time of the day, the dwell time and respective income profiles amongst the myriad of other highly granular consumer information.

It is this level of detail and microanalysis that informs our reports and allows us to provide our clients with a peer leading approach.

Trends in Independent Developments

There are a number of trends that we are seeing in many new developments that our food strategies must reflect and represent

• Health and Wellness  -  Good morning yoga & Pilates studios incorporating healthy kitchens or protein and smoothie kitchens or the opportunity to have a great espresso after the workout.

• Maximising the use of open space by creating park-like areas which food and beverage interface with highly porous lease lines. These areas are frequently complemented by highly designed gardens and integral weather protection providing year round dwell-spaces, people places, with a high degree of destinational food amenity.

• Wrapping a myriad of uses around a single development. Many new developments now contain restaurants, cafes, takeaways, grab and go, art galleries, cinemas, wellness, hotels plus office-space/commercial, providing a very diverse customer base that have a wide variety of spending profiles.

South City Square - Woolloongabba, QLD

• A lower volume of formal, elevated or premium dining offset by more elevated casual dining. The aim is to create more opportunities to dine more frequently, with offers that are more aligned to the lifestyle of the users and customers. This allows core strategy drivers such as social-value, placemaking and community development to deliver a much greater significance to the development’s overall personality.

• Authenticity and specialisation continue to drive food trends for example specialised sandwich bars with highly localised cuisines specific to a region or the procurement of local foods specific to the region of the project.

• Maximisation of the financial - Ensuring that the food and beverage strategy is tailored & curated to the needs of its surroundings increases the revenue and ultimately the asset value.

A result of this approach is that 80% of Future Food’s consultancies come from referrals and repeat custom, a testament to the outcomes our projects.

South City Square - Woolloongabba, QLD

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Image credits

• Solarino House - Brunswick: https://www.pellicano.com.au/project/solarino-house-brunswick/

• West Melbourne Waterfront Precinct - Perri Projects: https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/west-melbourne-waterfront-masterplan-gets-nod

• Smoothie Kitchens: http://www.fayshouse.com/starting-a-cold-pressed-juice-business-from-home/

• South City Square - Pellicano: https://www.pellicano.com.au/project/south-city-square/

• ClydeStone Square - H.CO: https://h-co.com.au/project/clydestone-square-coming-soon/

• South City Square - Pellicano: https://www.pellicano.com.au/project/south-city-square/