State Planners Decide Future of Toorak’s $56m Riverfront Prize

Blue Diamond—a company associated in ASIC documents with director Kanwal Jagroop Singh—has been cleared to build its five-storey luxury apartment block on the 3662sq m site.

The Stonnington City Council refused an earlier application for the site in 2025.

Those plans, for a 12-unit apartment project submitted in 2024, were rejected on the grounds of building height, scale and the absence of a cultural heritage management plan, among other issues. 

The approved project is a revised version of that rejected scheme and has been progressed through the Development Facilitation Program with the DTP.

▲ A rendering of the Toorak Pavilion site by Charles Wright Architects.

Charles Wright Architects has designed the project. which differs from the previous plans by reducing site coverage from 47 per cent to 37 per cent, with increased landscaping and side setbacks. 

Apartments would predominantly be 15 three-bedroom units, with a single one-bedroom, another two-bedroom and a four-bedroom penthouse, marking an uptick for the originally proposed 12 units.

There would be parking for 35 residential cars and three visitor cars.

The proposals will replace two residential homes in the sought-after suburb. 

The planning assessment report said that the proposals made a “modest contribution” to housing objectives. 

▲ The Toorak Pavilion project “sets a new benchmark for sustainable living and luxury in the city,” according to the architects.

Viewlines and built form were considered acceptable, and the building would not be “out of character” with the other buildings on the riverfront, the report said. 

While the Stonnington council still objected to a number of elements of the plan, the DTP said that the plans were “substantially revised” from those that the council had previously refused. 

Better setbacks—conforming to the mandatory 30m setback from the Birrarung—a reduction in site coverage and landscaping were part of a “high quality design outcome” it said. 

After three stages of consultation, the DTP granted the permit for the project which will join other major Toorak projects as the high-end of the market stays steady. 

While prices are dipping, the existing pipeline of luxury projects continues to progress.

Orchard Piper’s $400-million One Toorak Place mixed-use complex on Carters Avenue, backed by billionaire investor James Packer, is now under construction. Cobuild is expected to complete on site in 2028.

Apartments are the safe bet in Toorak, where house prices have plummetted 22 per cent—admittedly to a median of $4.55 million according to realestate.com.au.

Apartment price medians meanwhile have only dropped 1.4 per cent, to $950,000.