This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ALTERNATIVE residential developer Assemble has secured rezoning of two south-east Melbourne sites that will deliver $1.2 billion worth of mixed-use developments with build-to-rent and affordable housing.
Rezoned under the Victorian Planning Authority’s fast-track projects program, the Clayton and East Bentleigh sites will deliver over $900 million in affordable housing and $300 million of retail and workplace.
The former PMP Printing site in Clayton, at 209-211 Carinish Road, will make way for housing, shops and businesses centred about a new town square. Assemble has proposed a 680-apartment to social and affordable build-to-rent housing development on a 2.123-hectare parcel it acquired in 2016.
Some 20% will be delivered as social housing managed by Assemble’s community housing partner Housing Choices Australia, and 35% will be dedicated affordable housing targeting essential workers.
Designed by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, with Rush Wright as landscape architects, the development will feature over 4,500 sqm of office and retail space and create 2,500 construction jobs from its commencement in the middle of next year.
“This is a prime site that will revitalise the area set in a well-connected precinct, offering the community east access to key health, education and transport hub,” Assemble managing director, Kris Daff said.
“Our future residents will be within walking distance to the Monash Medical Centre, Monash University’s Clayton Campus, Clayton station and the future Suburban Rail Loop ‘superhub’ station.”
The $700 million multi-stage East Village project in East Bentleigh, at 246 East Boundary Road, will see over 940 units as social and affordable housing, with some 5,000 construction jobs to be created over the multi-stage development process.
The 4.3-hectare site was acquired in 2015 and in total will have 3,000 dwellings, 15,000 sqm of retail space and 80,000 sqm of commercial space, and be home to the new McKinnon College campus from January 2022.
The $450 million first stage includes 450 units designed by Hill Thalis, and 16,000 sqm of mixed-use space.
Assemble will have some 2,400 apartments under construction in the next six months. The country’s biggest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper took a 25% share in Assemble last year. It recently launched a rent with the option to buy project in Brunswick, as well as a build-to-rent development on a former confectionary site in Kensington that will feature more than 400 affordable dwellings, and some 20% of the apartments to be dedicated to social housing.
The Victorian government this week extended its build-to-rent tax concessions as the nascent sector gains traction among major developers and rising housing affordability concerns.
