Carpe Group Plans 28 Luxury Apartments at Collingwood

Carpe Group has plans to develop 28 luxury apartments at a triple-fronted Collingwood site, following its recent $10.6-million purchase of the property in partnership with Icon Developments.

The proposed development at 53-57 Cambridge Street, 2km east of the Melbourne CBD, is at the early concept stage. It would feature two and three-bedroom luxury apartments, each featuring courtyards and terraces.

The 811sq m site has street frontages to Cambridge, Derby and Langridge streets which, according to the developers, will maximise daylight and view corridors for all apartments.

This triple-fronted position provides about 85m of total street frontage.

Major Japanese builder Kajima Corporation owns Icon Developments and this project is one of four collaborations between Carpe and Icon.

The site is within walking distance to parks, cafes, bars and restaurants, positioning it to capitalise on Collingwood’s transformation from an industrial precinct to a sought-after residential neighbourhood.

Carpe Group acquired the property, home to textile merchant M.Recht Accessories for more than 40 years, through an expression-of-interest campaign managed by Cushman & Wakefield.

▲ Early concept design for the luxury apartment precinct at 53-57 Cambridge Street, Collingwood. Source: ICON

The sale represented the highest land rate per sq m achieved in Collingwood and the suburb’s largest transaction for 2024.

The site received more than 110 enquiries and eight competitive bids, which Cushman & Wakefield broker Daniel Wolman said “demonstrated the strong developer demand for Melbourne’s city-fringe locations”.

“As developers increasingly focus on pockets of Melbourne where development remains viable, inner-city precincts like Collingwood are seeing significant growth and demand,” Wolman said.

Further announcements regarding the project design team, sales launch and construction commencement are expected this year.

Carpe Group’s expansion continues with the recent acquisition of another substantial parcel of land in Hawthorn’s prestigious Scotch Hill precinct.

“This marks our fourth collaboration with Icon Developments,” a Carpe spokesperson said. The proposed development would feature 32 two and three-bedroom apartments across three levels.

Icon Kajima is no stranger to developer partnerships, having also buddied up with DM Property on its Motif Geelong development, and in a joint venture with Lowe Living it is working on a $160-million mixed-use project at South Melbourne.

Carpe Group has been contacted for comment.