Gurner Reveals 685-Home Precinct for Inner Melbourne
Five years after acquiring an inner Melbourne site, Gurner Group has launched plans for a “bona fide mixed-use development” with 685 apartments, new laneways and more than 10,000sq m of retail and commercial space.
The proposal now before the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning detail nearly 200 more ultra-luxury apartments than initially planned when Gurner Group got involved with the Richmond site in 2021.
Designed by FK Architects, the $300-million Harrington Village is proposed for a 12,802sq m site, and includes 576sq m of public open space and between 12,000 and 16,000sq m of commercial and retail net lettable area within 10 tenancies.
The four-stage development would have three basement levels. Ten per cent of the high-end apartment project would be allocated as affordable housing.
Existing heritage buildings, formerly laboratories, would be retained and restored for employment uses.
The apartments and commercial components would be across four buildings that respond to the “site’s redevelopment potential” with a “hierarchy of built form”.
Of the four buildings, 17-storey Building A would consist of 182 apartments, Building B would be 18 storeyss with 252 units, Building C 13 storeys and 112 units and Building D would have 139 apartments.
The plans are an uptick on previous proposals, which outlined 500 units and a retail village in five buildings of up to 12 storeys.
The site is home to brick warehouses, including one tenanted by a Melbourne event company Harry the Hirer.
One warehouse on the site was used as a Repco laboratory and is now heritage listed. It is part of the Victoria Street Activity Centre, according to a previous planning scheme amendment by the Yarra City Council.
The site is owned by Astrodome Hirem which leases it to Harry the Hirer.
The company said it wanted to move its business to Brooklyn, 18km west of its Richmond depot, prompting a rethink for the site.
The owners undertook a rezoning to allow the site to be changed from industrial to mixed-use.
Rezoning the 1.3ha site was the “missing” piece of the puzzle after a wider section of the Doonside precinct was rezoned in 2009.
Gurner Group said in at the time of the earlier iterations that Harrington Village had been inspired by New York City’s trendy meatpacking district in Greenwich Village.
A series of laneways proposed include two new pedestrian through-links, Harry’s Lane and Park Lane.
The high-profile Gurner Group has been focused on several projects in the past 12 months, including the $1.7-billion development dubbed Elysium Fields at Melbourne’s Docklands, and a downscaled project on the Gold Coast.
The developer last year won approval for an $800-million residential project on Kent Street.
