The development of a new Central Victorian Livestock Exchange has taken a significant leap forward with the signing of a contract on a parcel of land located on the North West corner of the intersection of the Western Highway and Sunraysia Highway near Ballarat.

The CVLX site will be home to a new $21m multi-species selling complex, with construction targeted to start in 2014.

The project represents a further investment of Australian superannuation equity into large scale Regional Livestock Exchanges (RLX) by Palisade Investment Partners’ Regional Infrastructure Fund.

Palisade’s managing director Ian Mitchell said the company had spent three years searching for, assessing and validating up to 20 different land options within the Ballarat City Council region, for the new facility.

Consideration has been given to a range of critical factors including road and transport infrastructure, management of noise and odour impacts and critically, the ability to have a sustainable onsite water capture and effluent management system.

“The RLX projects are a great way for the private sector to sustainably invest back into regional and rural Australia to provide modern, state-of-the-art, long-term essential infrastructure in the agriculture sector,” Mr Mitchell said.

The next stage of the development process will be the completion of the investigative reports which form part of a detailed planning application for submission to the Ballarat City Council.

City of Ballarat Mayor John Burt welcomed the announcement that Palisade had met the next key milestone in the development of a new saleyards facility.

“Council is eager to deliver a saleyards development for the Ballarat community,” Cr Burt said. “We have been working closely with Palisade to secure a process that will deliver this outcome.”

“We look forward to Palisade engaging with the community as they commence the planning approval process.”

A series of community and stakeholder engagement sessions will start early next year involving both key stakeholders and members of the general public in a forum to ask questions and provide feedback on detailed elements of the new CVLX.

Gerard White, president of the Ballarat Stock & Station Agents Association said his organisation welcomed the announcement regarding the acquisition of a site for the proposed new CVLX saleyards.

“Agents’ input on design and capacity of the yards will be crucial to the success of this significant development, and we look forward to the next step moving forward,” Mr White said.

While the project’s backers warn that some elements of the planning and development process can be complex and time consuming, they hope the new CVLX will be open for business in 2015.