Abbotsford Convent Foundation
The Abbotsford Convent precinct hosts more than 2,000 events each year — from art projects and rehearsals to exhibitions, markets, festivals and private and corporate functions — drawing around 1,500 visitors a day.
Managed by the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, the precinct also offers hospitality, retail and leisure facilities that add to this visitation.
The precinct has strong community support, but the Foundation's ambitions go further. Its evolving master plan sets out a bigger future for the site. To help secure funding for the master plan, SGS assessed the economic, social and environmental benefits the precinct currently generates, and how these would grow if the master plan goes ahead.
We assessed benefits under five categories, noting some overlap between them:
- Health and wellbeing value for visitors
- Wider place value as a treasured heritage asset
- Creative economy and tourism value
- Education value of graduating school students
- Greenspace value.
To estimate these benefits, we analysed visitation and utilisation data, surveyed precinct visitors, and applied a range of monetisation techniques.
The Abbotsford Convent precinct currently generates more than $30 million a year in social, economic and environmental benefits. If the Foundation's master plan is implemented over the next decade, this will grow to more than $55 million a year.
This project builds on our extensive experience estimating the social, economic and environmental benefits generated by precincts, including:
- Arts precincts (Darlinghurst Gaol, Melbourne Arts Precinct)
- Health precincts (Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct, Herston Quarter)
- Sports precincts (Melbourne Park, Moore Park)
- Entertainment and tourism precincts (Melbourne Arts Precinct, Alpine Resorts)
- Business and innovation precincts (Docklands, Fishermans Bend, Meadowbank Education and Employment Precinct)
- Social housing precincts (North Richmond, Dubbo, Redfern-Waterloo)
This project was a collaboration between SGS and Prescience Research.
