Family Trust Files Towers Plans for Blue-Ribbon Kensington

A family trust has applied for planning permission for a residential project on a key site in Melbourne’s Kensington.

The Brooks Family Trust is listed on the application documents filed with the City of Melbourne for a 4636sq m site at 29-33 and 35 Barrett Street and 43 Bruce Street, Kensington. 

Planners Human Habitats acted as the applicant.

BayleyWard Architects’ plans for the site include an eight-storey mixed-use residential tower with a public courtyard and park.

It would retain much of a heritage warehouse on the site for ground-floor retail space.

The proposal has a gross floor area of 24,678sq m, with 97.41m of frontage to Barrett Street and 57.92m of frontage to Bruce Street.

There will be 715sq m of food and beverage space, 933sq m of commercial studio space, 120 apartments and 252sq m of residential community space.

The apartment mix is for 38 one-bedroom units, 64 two-bedroom units and 18 three-bedroom units.

Three basement levels for the building would include 144 carparking spaces, 64 bike storage spaces and 47 storage cages.

The ground floor will have three food and beverage spaces and five retail spaces with the units on the first to seventh floors.

Access to the public spaces will be granted at all hours. 

▲ A render of the tower proposed for Kensington.

It is expected to have a 100 per cent STORM rating, a 7.5 star NatHERS rating and a 5-star Green Star rating when completed. 

Hip v Hype was brought in as a consultant on the sustainability aspects of the project, according to the application documents.

The site is 170m from the City Link Toll Road, 300m south of Macaulay Train Station and is next to Moonee Ponds Creek.

There are several two-storey warehouses on the site now.

CoreLogic property data states that 29-33 Barrett Street last exchanged hands on March 10, 1995 for $250,000, 35 Barrett Street on January 18, 1995 for $260,000 and 43 Bruce Street on November 14, 2007 for $1.065 million.

The buyers and sellers for each transaction were not listed.

Landata title deeds list Brookscot Pty Ltd as the proprietors of 43 Bruce Street and 35 Barrett Street and Melbourne Chef Pty Ltd as the proprietors of 29-33 Barrett Street.

ASIC records list Gary James Brooks and Mark John Brooks as the directors of Brookscot Pty Ltd and Elie Mansour and Ronald Mansour as the directors of Melbourne Chef Pty Ltd. 

Both affordable and build-to-rent projects are being developed in Kensington, which is also near the Macaulay and Arden precincts in Melbourne.