Karingal destined for new head office
17 August 2011
Karingal is an organisation that has grown a great deal, particularly over the past 10 years and this has led to the need for a new head office.
I am pleased to announce that after a reasonably long search, Karingal will soon purchase the former LeisureLinks Centre site in Reynolds Road, Belmont from the City of Greater Geelong.
This large site will be redeveloped into a new Karingal headquarters and will allow staff more space, and room for the organisation to grow into the future.
We think the location is fantastic for our staff – it’s reasonably close to Geelong CBD and to the Ring Road.
The site has plenty of car parking – often a challenge at our current administrative locations.
Once we have officially purchased the site, investigations will be done into the best redevelopment options, including whether the current building will be used or a purpose-built facility constructed.
We considered continuing with the existing model of offices – with three main administrative hubs throughout Geelong. However, one central head office is clearly favoured as the best option. Having staff together and the synergies that introduces is something we look forward to achieving.
In saying that, even when we bring our administrative areas together, Karingal will still have other locations across Geelong. Buildings from which services are provided will remain where they are to ensure we stay accessible to the people who use Karingal services and our communities.
The new site is in a community services precinct with Barwon Health, a new medical clinic, as well as a future child and maternal health centre, the bowling alley and Christian College all also close by.
The other benefit of such a large site, which is almost one hectare in size, is there will also be room to build at least two residential properties for people with disabilities in the future.
Relocation to the new head office will take around two years which will give the council time to change zoning requirements to allow offices to be built on the site.
We are very excited to have found an ideal site for our head office, which will allow us the space we need to grow into the future.
Daryl Starkey
Chief Executive Officer