Sydney Developer Seeks Rezoning for Glen Eira Scheme

Sydney technology and co-working space entrepreneurs have launched plans to rezone a small pocket of industrial land in Melbourne’s south-east for a 171-plus apartment development.

The Northern Beaches-based founders of co-working space and broadband company Newport Net, Karen and Simon Bond, and two of their sons, are planning the development via their Simkar Pty Ltd vehicle.

The 2239sq m amalgamated site is at 964-972 Dandenong Road and 4 Grange Road at Carnegie, 11km from Melbourne’s CBD.

The developers have submitted a ministerial planning permit and rezoning proposals with the Department of Transport and Planning via the Development Facilitation Program pathway proposing 171 homes.

Under the proposals, levels one to eight would have 20 apartments per floor in typologies ranging from one-bed to three-bedroom, with the remaining 11 apartments on level nine.

Ground-floor retail, surrounding a central atrium, would total 1172 square metres.

A single-storey commercial building is on the site.

▲ The Dandenong Road site has been the subject of rezoning plans for several years.

The site is near the Monash University Caulfield Campus, Caulfield Railway Station and Caulfield Racecourse.

The area has been earmarked for renewal at state and council levels. 

The site is in Precinct 6 of the Caulfield Major Activity Centre, the plans for which were adopted by the Glen Eira City Council in 2022. 

The activity centre was designated by the Department of Transport and Planning as a “higher-order centre” intended to provide a diverse range of jobs, activities and housing.

The site has been at the centre of council-led rezoning plans, according to the planning report, but the rezoning from industrial to commercial has not yet happened. 

▲ The Cera Stribley-designed development would be a contemporary addition to the growing urban renewal area, developers said.

So the developers are making a head start, seeking a rezoning to commercial in the interim to allow the mixed-use shoptop development.

The Cera Stribley-designed project would present a “modern yet contextually sensitive addition to Carnegie,” the planning report said.

Victoria’s population is expected to reach 10.3 million by 2051. Within the Glen Eira Council local government area, the population is projected to increase by 11.9 per cent between 2024 and 2036, according to the report.

As a result of strong population fundamentals and urban renewal policies, major projects including the Caulfield Village mixed-use project have been developed. 

That project, by Beck Property Group, which is backed by Blackstone, delivered 390 build-to-sell apartments in Precinct 2 South in 2019, and 437 build-to-rent apartments in the northern precinct in 2022.