Minister Approves Shayher’s Pentridge Prison Towers

Victoria’s planning minister has called in and approved a two-tower residential scheme for the Pentridge Prison site.

Brisbane-based developer Shayer Group put forward the project for a part of the site of the 170-year-old prison at Coburg, about 9km north of the Melbourne CBD.

The project is to rise between the 6m-high bluestone walls on Champ Street and the historic A Division Cell Block.

That application went before Heritage Victoria in February this year.  

The application proposed 245 apartments in a mix of one, two and three bedrooms across the 11-storey (109 apartments) and 12-storey towers (136 apartments). 

There will also be 260 carparking and 345 bicycle spaces across three basement levels as well as open spaces. Access is via Moonering Drive.

Pedestrian access will be via an opening in the original bluestone wall to the southwestern yard.

In February, Shayer Group estimated the cost for the project at $70 million. 

Shayer has been working on multiple projects for the 6.7ha Pentridge Prison site under a masterplan that supports high-density development.

State planning minister Sonia Kilkenny has now approved the application, which means it does not go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), potentially delaying the project after it spent three years being considered by the Merri-bek City Council. 

The Government said in a statement that the “approval will ensure the project does not get stuck in VCAT and hundreds of good quality homes for families and young Victorians can get built”.

The site of the CHT Architects-designed project is near the Coburg Station, tram stops, five schools, parks, playgrounds, shops and a cinema. 

▲ A landscaped walkway will divide the two buildings, and lead to the A Division cell block—which was briefly a prison for women.

During the past year, Kilkenny has used her powers under the Planning Act to intervene and approve 10,700 homes, including by using the Development Facilitation Program—a fast-track option for projects that provide affordable housing as part of their outcomes. 

Pentridge Prison was once among Australia’s most feared correctional facilities.

Though based in Brisbane, Shayer is part of Taiwanese apartment developer Par Jar Group, who bought the northern half of the prison in 2013. 

Part of the prison has since been converted into a $1-billion entertainment and lifestyle precinct.

That precinct includes a shopping mall, a 15-screen cinema, a brewery, wine bar, restaurant, another apartment tower, townhouses and an apartment hotel by Adina. 

The prison was built between 1860 and 1865. The A Division’s double-storey block was meant to be a separate women’s prison but it was used for that for less than a year before female prisoners were transferred to Melbourne Gaol. In the 1890s a southern wing was added. 

Past inmates at the prison include bushranger Ned Kelly and armed robber Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.

▲ Pentridge Prison was completed in 1865.