The Influencers: Patrick Archer

An Interview with Patrick Archer, Development Director, Cedar Woods. 

Patrick Archer is the Properties’ Development Director of Cedar Woods. Having been in the industry for over 20 years now, we speak with him about the industry and how over time, the many changes in property development has a lot better understanding  and appreciation of urban and architectural design. Archer says “today’s purchasers are interested in quality and will choose what they purchase on the basis of location, design and quality fixtures and fittings.” 

ApartmentDevelopments: 

Why did you choose this job? Did someone in particular influence you or did you always want to be in this industry?

Patrick Archer:

I get a buzz out of seeing projects that I’ve worked on over the past two and a half decades on the ground and part of the fabric of our society. During the first eight years of my career I was lucky enough to work on some of Melbourne’s biggest ever projects including Melbourne Central, Southgate, the Casino and Melbourne Museum starting out as a junior engineer. Delivering major projects was fun but the really interesting part of the property development spectrum for me is creating developments from the outset, understanding the market and planning constraints, determining what to build, briefing the design team, marketing, selling and ultimately delivering the project. There are many layers of complexity and plenty of scope to innovate. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

What are you most passionate about when working?

Patrick Archer:

Creating truly excellent homes that people will love to live in.  I like to know that we’ve done the best possible job in all aspects of a development. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

What prompted you to become intrigued in this particular development? 

Patrick Archer:

I live in a walkable suburb with a strong sense of community and hardly ever use my car on weekends as nearly everything is a short walk or a bike ride from home. 

Most first home buyers today are faced with a dilemma: do they buy an affordable home in the outer growth areas with limited services and a car trip to wherever they need to go; or do they leave the area they grew up in, friends family and a support network to rent an apartment in Southbank or Docklands with a transient population and no real sense of community. I feel for people who are struggling with this issue today, especially those who think home ownership is out of their reach. 

Newton Apartments is an affordable way to live in the heart of an established community with easy access to services, amenity and transport to the city. It’s a great lifestyle option at affordable price that will help first home buyers enter the market. If you can buy a small home on the outer fringe or afford to rent in the inner city, you should be able to buy at Newton where everything you want is a short walk away. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

As the Cedar Woods Properties’ Development Director, do you feel a lot of pressure when doing your job? Are there a lot of hardships that accompany the job?

Patrick Archer:

We all work pretty hard but really enjoy what we do; creating large scale, premium property developments from scratch. I’ve got a team of very clever colleagues and design consultants around me and we work for a top performing company with an ethos of integrity and excellence. Pressure and hardship don’t really come into it for me, it’s about enjoying work and being proud of what we create. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

How important do you think health is when designing and planning Melbourne’s urban development fringe?

Patrick Archer:

 ‘Walkability’ – the ability to walk to everything you need – is an important consideration in all of our acquisitions. That is, proximity to public transport, retail amenity and parklands. Furthermore, once we acquire a site, it is an important consideration when master planning the development and we try to improve the existing ‘walk score’ as much as possible.

For example, we’ve been very careful to include walking and jogging circuits in Williams Landing, each one of the reserves in the project is bounded by a continuous shared path. Join a few of the paths together and you have a picturesque walking, jogging or cycling circuit.  

ApartmentDevelopments:

You are currently working on improving health in housing estates- how did it come about to make this part of the planning policy? 

Patrick Archer:

When we acquired Williams Landing, we saw the opportunity to bring great urban design to a new community in Melbourne’s West. We did a lot of work with Mike Day of Roberts Day who pointed to the U.S. where there was an increasing acknowledgement that walkability makes for healthier communities because it connects people to shared public spaces and amenities.

Now technology is catching up and doing its part too, many people are buying sports watches with built in activity and heart rate monitors. We’ll provide the paths and the walkable destinations, hopefully peer group pressure, technology and education will get people out there and using them! 

ApartmentDevelopments:

As the Cedar Woods Properties’ Development Director, you must have encountered many interesting and difficult properties and planning strategies. Do you have a favourite story? 

Patrick Archer:

A while back we purchased a large farm for development. On the settlement day we went out to see the property and receive the keys from the elderly farmer who was driving an old ute with more rust than paint and nearly every panel dented. As he gave me the keys I said to the farmer, John (not his real name) you’re a very wealthy man now, what do you think you’ll do with all of that money? He said thoughtfully, “I reckon I might buy meself a new tractor, my current one is older than my ute”.

ApartmentDevelopments:

What has been the most difficult part of your job?  

Patrick Archer:

Coming second in a bids to purchase new development sites. It can take months of effort from a team of people, late nights and loads of intellectual capital to put a bid together. It’s really disappointing when you come close but don’t win a bid. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

Cedar Woods believes sound development planning and community health are inextricably linked. In what ways are they “inextricably linked"? Can they benefit one another?

Patrick Archer:

Absolutely, as touched upon in one of my earlier responses, there is an increasing acknowledgement in both the U.S. and Australia that increased ‘walkability’, through sound development planning, makes for healthier communities because it connects people to shared public spaces. Conversely, this ‘walkability’ also correlates with increased property values. Hence, developing healthy communities through increased walkability is of benefit to both developers and purchasers alike.

ApartmentDevelopments:

What type of health facilities will be on offer at the centre of the planning policy for the residents?  Will there be a variety of both medical and psychological health facilities? 

Patrick Archer:

We have incorporated a medical centre, pharmacy and dentist within the recently completed Williams Landing Shopping Centre and are currently seeking gym operators for this shopping centre’s first expansion stage. Furthermore, we anticipate bringing various other office / allied medical suite leasing opportunities to the market in the foreseeable future and believe that these will appeal to other medical and psychological health facilities seeking professional premises from which to operate their businesses.

ApartmentDevelopments:

Do you consider yourself someone who is concerned with the health of Australian’s and their wellbeing? Is health a top priority for you?

Patrick Archer:

I think it is important to provide people with the ability (and therefore passively encourage them) to be active and healthy. Williams Landing’s residential neighbourhoods and the Williams Landing Town Centre have been designed to make such activities as convenient as possible, through the incorporation of public transport and retail amenity located within a walkable distance to resident’s homes and parks and sporting reserves further incorporated into the development.

Cedar Woods sponsors many local sports clubs though our neighbourhood grants program, we believe that this helps to create an active healthy community. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

Melbourne’s Wyndham has been labeled the “sickest place in Victoria” because they are suffering an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. How do you think this could have been prevented through the industry you work in?

Patrick Archer:

The City of Wyndham has experienced such tremendous growth over the past decade that it has been difficult for council and government to keep up with the subsequent growth in demand for amenity such as retail and public transport. Subsequently, this has acted as a disincentive to walk from one place to another and the region has become very car reliant. Developers can help to reverse the phenomenon by designing walkable neighbourhoods and in the case of the Williams Landing Town Centre, we can help by developing an urban walkable city.  

Creating great parks and a network of bike paths also gives people the opportunity to get out and about in their own community. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

According to Professor Giles-Corti from Melbourne University, your health can be affected by the conditions of the suburb you live in. Do you agree with this? Why/ Why not?

Patrick Archer:

Absolutely. Urban designer, Mike Day, was recently quoted as saying that there is an increasing acknowledgement in the industry that that ‘walkability’ correlated to better health outcomes and increased resident satisfaction. Walking to a functional town centre helps residents avoid negative health side effects such as obesity and the isolation of the car-to-work-to-home lifestyle that afflicts many outer suburban communities.

ApartmentDevelopments:
How important do you think it is to make health a priority in planning laws? Do you think health could ever be disregarded when planning laws? 

Patrick Archer:

It is a difficult balance to achieve as there are many competing forces to consider in property development. Likewise there are many other factors that also need to be considered as major contributors to health including education and labelling of unhealthy products. Planning definitely has a major contributing role to play in determining the health of a community. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

What about those residents still living in areas like Wyndham that are unable to have access to the services that the new housing estates have?  How do you aim to help the old housing estates as well as planning the new and beneficial housing estates? 

Patrick Archer:

As the Williams Landing Town Centre continues to grow, this will provide ever-increasing opportunities for people within and around Wyndham to access services, amenities and local employment opportunities. This will obviously help to ensure that they have less travel time and are able to allocate more time to leisure and fitness activities such as going for bike rides along Federation Trail, running around with the family dog in one of the various Williams Landing parks or dining with family and friends at restaurants and cafes.

ApartmentDevelopments:

Evidently, physical and mental health is a major issue in Australia, with roaring statistics of obesity and diabetes in our country as well as heart-breaking facts about mental health. Do you see these statistics changing in the near future? 

Patrick Archer:

From a property perspective, I think it is likely to improve in the future. Younger generations in particular are signaling walkability as an important factor in their decision making process and developers are subsequently considering this in their planning process to ensure that they are providing pleasant places to live and work. Of course, these are big issues that impact all of society and therefore require urgent attention from all industry sectors, including property.

Giving people easy access to parks and sporting reserves can also assist in improving physical and mental health. Our planners are attuned to these issues and try to achieve a reasonable distribution of these facilities. 

ApartmentDevelopments:

Where do you see the industry you work in, in 10 years from now?

Patrick Archer:

I see more people living in apartments with better recreational facilities close at hand. Hopefully more of our peers in the development industry will follow the example set by Williams Landing in creating neighbourhoods and town centres with high walkability scores. Health and sustainability will undoubtedly become more and more important.