Piccolo Gets Green Light for $120m Apartment Project

Boutique developer Piccolo has been given the green light to begin building a $120-million apartment project in Melbourne’s inner north.

Piccolo outlaid $20 million for the triple-fronted Fitzroy site on the corner of Gore and Argyle streets, just 2km from the Melbourne CBD, in August 2021 and lodged a development application soon after. 

The developer, headed by Michael Piccolo, plans to build an eight-storey project across the 1900sq m amalgamated site that is currently home to an Australia Post distribution centre at 371-385 Gore Street and two residential properties on Argyle Street.

The development, to be called 385 Gore Street, will feature 49 apartments targeted at the top end of the market in two and three-bedroom configurations.

Piccolo said the site was selected due to its central location in Fitzroy, a suburb that nudges up against the CBD’s northern end, its connection to tram and road networks and its proximity to Smith, Brunswick and Johnston streets.

It will sit above two levels of basement parking for 72 cars and 55 bicycle spaces as well as six ground-level visitor spaces.

The project has been designed by architecture firm Woods Bagot after successful collaborations with Piccolo, including Garden House, a 46-apartment project in Carlton, and Elwood House, a 30-apartment project in Elwood.

Woods Bagot said the apartment building had been designed to mirror the suburb’s diverse range of buildings from the Victorian and early Edwardian eras.

Like most of its neighbouring apartment buildings and similarly scaled projects scattered across Fitzroy, the project’s built form will extend to the full site extent at its lower levels and then set back above the street wall.

The development, which will feature brick at street level and recessed, glazed levels above, will be bound by a single-storey warehouse to the west and a series of private open spaces to double and triple-storey terrace homes on Kerr and Gore streets as well as a lane to the site’s north.

▲ The building will be to scale with nearby buildings varying from single-storey dwellings and warehouses up to 10-storeys. Image: Woods Bagot

The apartments sector in Fitzroy has had a tough time of it during the past 12 months, retreating by 5.6 per cent to a median of $715,000, according to REA Group.

The suburb, however, has remained a popular destination for developers vying to build apartments for owners who want to live within its retail, culinary and creative scene.

In March, builders Hamilton Marino began constructing The Standard—a boutique hotel of 126 guest rooms. The Rose Street site was acquired in 2018 by private developer DealCorp, which received permit approval for the hotel in 2019.

High-rise developer Hengyi is shifting its development gaze with the launch of its first boutique residential project, comprising 25 two and three-bedroom apartments, across a 1200sq m site at 88 Kerr Street. 

SMA Projects also has plans for a 65-apartment development on the site of a former theatre and television studio at 84-104 Johnston Street.

Nearby at 71-75 Argyle Street, construction on Piccolo’s sold-out Fitzroy House project, comprising 34 apartments and commercial space at the ground level, recently completed.

Meanwhile, more than 1000 homes are planned as part of the transformation of the heritage Fitzroy Gasworks site. 

The state government, through its development arm, is seeking developers to deliver around $900 million worth of apartments on the 3.9ha former industrial site on the corner of Alexander Parade and Smith Street.