Malaysian Developer Pitches $300m Village of Towers

Malaysian developer UEM Sunrise has lodged plans with the City of Yarra Council for an end value $300-million, 23-storey mixed-use “village of towers” at Collingwood.

UEM Sunrise splashed $43 million on the 5390sq m site at 21-43 Hoddle Street at Collingwood in 2020, a former Honda and Nissan multi-level car dealership. 

Cox Architecture has designed the building, which comprises 361 apartments and 313 carparks, with a view to creating a community that connects Collingwood and North Richmond. 

It is the second development that UEM Sunrise has engaged Cox Architecture on, after developing the Conservatory Melbourne. 

“The site offers an excellent opportunity to respond to challenging urban conditions and develop an architecturally designed innovative precinct that complements Collingwood and becomes a catalyst for the area,” the urban context report said.

“The site is also understood as a great opportunity to connect the Collingwood community with the neighbouring North Richmond food and retail precinct along Victoria Street. 

“The proposal is for a mixed-use precinct with a variety of built-form heights and identities above a very articulated podium.”

▲ The Cox Architecture-designed four-tower village will include a mix of different-sized apartments and four townhouses.

The building comprises four different towers with specific delineated design above a four-storey podium, commercial office space, a public town square and arcade and retail at ground plane. 

According to Cox Architecture, the site offers an opportunity to create scale without adversely affecting other key corridors in the City of Yarra, and it could facilitate higher density.

The development would comprise 141 one-bedroom apartments, 170 two-bedroom apartments, 46 three-bedroom apartments and four townhouses. 

UEM Sunrise Director, Business International (Australia), Ong Chee Wei said it was a great opportunity to rejuvenate the “dynamic fabric” of the area. 

“Using our proven development experience and expertise, our team will deliver an innovative and authentic precinct that will set a new benchmark for residential and commercial offerings in Collingwood,” Wei said.

“The precinct is designed to capture the essence of Melbourne’s inner-urban vitality, enhance user wellbeing and respond to the shift in consumer living and working preferences that have resulted from the pandemic.”

“Bespoke spaces to call home, future-ready workplace, more greenery and new public amenity to engage and benefit the local community are all part of what we’re proposing.”

The Malaysian developer was forced to abandon its $330-million Zaha Hadid-designed Mayfair apartment project in St Kilda Rd in 2020 after slow sales. 

It instead focused its efforts on completing the $800-million flagship project Aurora Melbourne Central in the CBD, where 95 per cent of sales were made in the first two weeks on market.