Auyin Tries Again with Upscaled Shoptop Highrise at Elsternwick

Auyin is proposing a 13-storey development including ground-floor retail above two levels of basement with parking for 58 cars.

The shoptop scheme proposed for the three-lot corner site would incorporate the surrounding laneway network, Auyin’s planning permit application said.

Proposed are 40 two and three-bedroom apartments, with a residential health facility at ground level and communal space on level three just above the podium.

The plans, submitted via the Development Facilitation Program pathway, are a second shot at a taller built form by Auyin.

▲ CBG Architects designed Auyin’s proposal for its Elsternwick site.

The developer said it wanted to “re-examine the development potential of the site” with the updated proposals that are a return to the plans filed in 2018. 

The original planning permit application for the 1238sq m site detailed a 14-storey mixed-use development, which the Glen Eira City Council supported in principle, resolving eventually to approve a reduced eight-storey project. 

A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal appeal application was lodged in 2019. The tribunal varied a number of permit conditions but upheld the eight-storey limit. 

However, since the VCAT decision, the built form context of the Elsternwick Activity Centre “continued to evolve” into an urban renewal precinct, and structure plans for Elsternwick were launched by the council in 2023. 

Auyin’s Horne Street site was specifically identified as an urban renewal site, according to its planning report.

Developers have struggled to get projects off the ground at Elsternwick in recent years. A planning application by developer Pace alongside supermarket giant Woolworths faced considerable backlash last year, and the council stepped in to complain when it was approved at state level.