Lifestyle Communities

Developer	Lifestyle Communities
Delivery Partners	Todd Devine Homes
Location	9 developments across Victoria, including Warragul, Bendigo, Shepparton, Geelong, Ocean Grove, St Leonards, Pakenham, Berwick, Chelsea Heights and Melton
Solution	The Helical Pile, historically, with the RADIX pile now assessed per site
Scale	Over 50,000 screw piles installed across 19 developments
Timeframe	Over 16 years

The Stake

For a land lease developer building homes that need to perform for residents over many years, the stakes are a high standard of finish, minimal long-term issues, and low ongoing maintenance, on a development pipeline that only works commercially if each stage is delivered fast.

The Challenge

The alternative on the table is concrete. Each of the 19 developments sits on a different soil profile, and the build program with Todd Devine Homes requires a fixed number of units delivered per month, sometimes across a two-year build spanning developments of 120 to 300 units. A screw pile contractor without FTA’s compliance discipline or capacity risks inaccurate pile placement and can’t guarantee simultaneous delivery across multiple live sites, both real risks at this scale.

The Approach

Every development begins with pre-construction site testing to assess geotechnical and structural conditions, with the screw pile design engineered specifically to that site rather than reused from the last one. Historically, all 19 developments have used The Helical Pile. Going forward, FTA will assess each site against both The Helical Pile and the Radix pile to determine the best fit. Crews typically run three to four people per machine, with capacity built in to scale up if a development’s sales outpace the original program.

Rather than simply telling us what cannot be done, FTA’s approach has generally been, ‘How do we make this work?’ For Todd Devine Homes, that flexibility can make a significant difference.

Wayne Walsh

GM, Todd Devine Homes

The Outcome

Across 16 years and 19 developments, FTA has installed more than 50,000 screw piles for Lifestyle Communities. Because the developments are land lease, the foundations remain fully removable, a genuine circular-economy advantage that lets a screw pile be unwound entirely if a site’s use ever changes. The relationship has extended to a strong, multi-level partnership with builder Todd Devine Homes.