ApartmentsClare BurnettFri 28 Aug 26
Time & Place Files Reworked Plans for $500m Northcote Plaza Scheme
Time & Place’s controversial redevelopment of a tired shopping plaza 5km from Melbourne CBD is being revisited.
The developer has submitted its plans for a trio of residential towers at 25 Separation Street at Northcote, north-east of the city centre, with the Department of Transport and Planning.
The scheme replaces $500-million plans for Northcote Plaza; plans that were approved by the City of Darebin Council after an appeal before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in 2022.
The new application details a mixed-use development of three residential buildings of up to 24 storeys with a total of 670 apartments.
The proposal would replace the approved plans for an office building and smaller number of apartments in buildings of up to 18 storeys.
Podium structures in the new submission would rise up to five levels and include a full-line supermarket among other retail spaces.
Stage one of the proposed development would include two residential towers, the supermarket and car parking in basements and podiums. Retail loading and basement parking would be accessed from a neighbouring council car park.
Stage two covers the western section of the site—a residential tower and podium parking.
Time & Place’s application said the development “represents an opportunity to contribute a high-quality development” in a major activity centre.
The developer is proposing new public realm and communal facilities with its fresh application.
The apartments would comprise 64 studio units, 246 one-bedroom, 318 two-bedroom and 42 three-bedroom apartments to cater for a “broad spectrum of the market”.
Parking of 538 places is proposed, down from 696 spaces in the original plans.
The 13,512sq m site is split into a larger southern section and a smaller northern side at the western Plaza entry, home to a car park for the shopping centre.
The subject site is part of the Northcote Plaza Shopping Centre within the Northcote Major Activity Centre. The shopping centre was built in the early 1980s on the site of the former Northcote Brickworks.
Time & Place acquired the site from LAS Group for around $60 million in 2021. Its plans have faced considerable turbulence.
In 2022, the Darebin Council unanimously rejected an earlier iteration of the project at the southern end of the Northcote Plaza, submitted prior to Time & Place’s acquisition, which the council said included just eight social homes.
Later that year, the developer took the project to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, where it was greenlit to develop the $500-million project.
Subsequent extensions were granted, following the Darebin Council issuing a planning permit at the direction of VCAT for the development in May 2025. The developer has not outlined why it did not begin work on the previously approved scheme.
The existing planning permit for the site covers a refurbished retail offering at the lower levels, including 7649sq m of retail including a supermarket, and 587 residential apartments and a standalone office tower with 3100sq m of office floor area.
Time & Place were contacted for comment for this report.
The developer is working on major projects with a focus on Sydney in recent years, including its second Manly project and a Surry Hills, $181-million Surry Hills adaptive reuse project, but it has also added a South Melbourne Officeworks site to its pipeline in a $75-million deal earlier this year.
