Anchor tenant Broadbent Grain, which will be joined at the industrial hub by Agrimac and Kane Transport, was the only tenant to begin work at the site last year. 

The three businesses will occupy an initial subdivision of 35 hectares. 

A fourth tenant – a local manufacturer – is yet to be named by the state government. 

“There are a number (of tenants) that are imminent announcements, some final legal arrangements to be squared away but I can certainly confirm that demand continues to be strong, so much so that I’m turning my mind to what the next stage is going to entail,” Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said. 

“The bigger challenge is managing demand rather than needing to generate extra demand.”

The state government announced the completion of initial works, which included the construction of roads, the provision of gas, water and NBN, on Friday.

The $30 million joint initiative between City of Ballarat and the state government is expected to generate 9000 jobs in the long term. 

City of Ballarat mayor Samantha McIntosh said BWEZ was a project “that has probably been obtuse to many”.  

“The minute that you see activity on a site like this it creates great interest,” Cr McIntosh said. 

“We can see that there’s now movement, once people have seen the signage go up, they’ve seen the road construction happen, and they know that first stage has been committed to, it has absolutely created attention to the site.”

Cr McIntosh said council would “keep its foot on the pedal” and lobby state and federal government through each stage of the project’s development.

“We know that there is an opportunity here for Ballarat to be the emergency hub, even across our borders, so today we’re not just talking about opening the gates to BWEZ, we’re talking about what that means for the future growth of our rural and regional communities.”