IGA Supermarket, Winchelsea – Pre-Construction and Project Management

Project Insight

IGA Supermarket Winchelsea illustrates why pre-construction discipline matters most when a project is under commercial pressure. The original scheme for IGA Supermarket Winchelsea, approved by Surfcoast Shire Council in December 2023, included four dwellings on the first floor facing Willis Street. By the time Fox Building Group was engaged in 2025, escalating construction costs had eroded the feasibility of building that residential component alongside the supermarket.

Rather than proceed with a scheme that no longer stacked up, Fox Building Group worked with the owner-operator and architect Baldasso Cortese to redesign the first floor of IGA Supermarket Winchelsea as a rooftop plant deck, removing the dwellings and a significant layer of cost and construction risk, while preserving the commercial floor plate below. This is the Pre-Construction Advantage in practice: testing a scheme’s buildability and financial viability before locking in a design, rather than discovering the problem once documentation and pricing are underway.

Winchelsea’s town centre location, on Willis Street opposite the existing IGA site, means the Section 72 amendment has needed careful coordination between Fox Building Group, town planning consultants Urbis and Surfcoast Shire Council. Removing an approved residential component from a permit is not a formality; it requires updated traffic, acoustic, stormwater and urban design assessments to satisfy Council that the amended scheme still meets its planning conditions. Fox Building Group is managing these consultant interfaces directly, so that Urbis can lodge a complete, well-supported amendment application and the project can move to construction documentation without rework.

Externally, the amended design pairs a natural precast concrete panel base with charcoal interlocking metal cladding and thermally modified timber battens to the entries, echoing the material language Fox Building Group has also used at IGA Inverleigh. A modular charcoal acoustic wall panel addresses the loading dock and plant interface to neighbouring properties, while recycled clay brick paving to the entry forecourt and black-framed shopfront glazing give the supermarket and specialty tenancies a considered, town-centre presence rather than a standard big-box facade. The rooftop plant deck, previously the dwelling level, now houses a minimum 50kW solar array and acoustically screened plant, turning what would have been a compromised residential outlook into a sustainability asset for the whole development.

IGA Supermarket Winchelsea is Fox Building Group’s second engagement with this owner-operator, following the same Pre-Construction Project Management role at IGA Inverleigh. On this project, Fox Building Group’s mandate extends further: beyond leading design development and the town planning pathway, Fox Building Group will continue to manage the consultant team through Construction Documentation and Building Permit, and on into construction delivery. That continuity, one project manager carrying budget, programme and buildability knowledge from concept through to completion, is central to how Fox Building Group reduces risk for owner-operators delivering supermarket and retail developments across regional Victoria.

This proactive risk management is central to how Fox Building Group is steering IGA Supermarket Winchelsea through its remaining approvals and into construction.

Fox Building Group maintains a live risk register for IGA Supermarket Winchelsea, tracking planning, design and construction interfaces so that issues are identified and resolved well before they can affect the programme.