Plenary Living has delivered and is now managing 3,015 permanent accommodation units at 14 defence force bases in every Australian Mainland State and Territory. The project will be fundamental to the ongoing recruitment and retention of high quality young people in the Australian Defence Forces.
These new facilities offer independent single living accommodation for Australian Defence Force personnel and, along with Single LEAP 1, will dramatically improve the living-in accommodation to single servicemen and servicewomen across Australia.
As in Single LEAP 1, Plenary Living successfully oversaw the development of the design proposal and worked closely with each design and construction partner to ensure a meticulous approach to management and construction with a particular focus on quality and programming.
Plenary Living saw an opportunity to involve a range of regional builders. The benefit for the project turned on Plenary Living to bring local knowledge and local sub-contractors that provide delivery certainty.
Plenary Living now has a 33-year obligation to ensure these quality accommodation facilities are maintained to a standard befitting of our Australian servicemen and women in partnership with ESS Support Services Worldwide, a member of the Compass Group.
Design features
The project has ensured the single living apartments suit modern contemporary studio accommodation, including self-contained ensuite, private balconies, kitchenettes and undercover carparking with adjacent storage.
On-base socialisation is facilitated through the provision of recreation pavilions, BBQ shelters and, in some cases, half basketball courts 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).
Innovations
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 were 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.
Local economic impacts
Over the three year construction phase the Commonwealth's commitment to upgrade Defence accommodation created some 2,000 jobs nationally. These jobs were spread across every Mainland State and Territory and were largely located in regional Australia. Around 85 per cent of on-site trades were sourced locally.
The project provided a tremendous opportunity to involve five separate regional builders, and as a result has opened the PPP market to a wider range of participants. The builders report that the project came at a time that was allowing them to continue to maintain employment outcomes.