Nicholson Street's apartment activity slips into top gear

Nicholson Street's apartment activity slips into top gear
Mark BaljakMarch 4, 2017

Straddling Brunswick East and Fitzroy North, Nicholson Street is in the midst of a development boom. Urban.com.au is keeping tabs on approximately 1,000 new apartments currently in development toward the northern end of the increasingly popular thoroughfare. 

Due to the increasingly limited number of development sites along Nicholson Street, and particularly those with a large footprint capable of handling hundreds of apartments, Nicholson Street is currently at the zenith of its development potential. 10 separate apartment projects are now in play, with the majority at sales or under construction.

By far the largest project is Banco Group's East Brunswick Village, which is a large-scale urban renewal project on the site of the former Tontine Pillow Factory. 

Hand in hand with the recent commencement of piling onsite is the project's reconfiguration of Lots 1 and 2. This initial stage of East Brunswick Village will see a slight increase in apartments to 307 (split between 218 x 1BR and 81 x 2BR), increased retail space equating to 4,254sqm, and an increase in both car parking and bicycle spaces.

Nicholson Street's apartment activity slips into top gear
An early East Brunswick Village render along with current piling works onsite

The overall development includes seven separate buildings with total apartments around the 600 mark. Whilst technically under construction, East Brunswick Village has yet to see its sales campaign formally launched. The same cannot be said for a handful of other projects along Nicholson Street.

Victory House with its 102 apartments is fresh to construction, with builder Element Five's signage freshly across the corner site. Fellow projects in their construction infancy include MiaMia and Fitz & Co, whilst NYKO and 88-90 Nicholson Street are further into their construction cycle.

Combined these 5 projects which have successfully attained necessary presales, will yield approximately 220 dwellings which puts into perspective the massive nature of East Brunswick Village.

Next in line is Lt Miller and Mr Nichols; both having begun their marketing campaigns. The very swish 38 Nicholson Street designed by Hachem is also sitting on approval.

Nicholson Street's apartment activity slips into top gear
The stylish lines of 38 Nicholson Street. Image: Hachem

Nicholson Street's dearth of pending projects at planning hints towards the diminishing number of sites available for future development.

77-83 Nicholson Street presents as the only noteworthy current planning application. Home to cafe and eatery Pope Joan, 77-83 Nicholson Street is subject to a 6-7 level development over two basement levels, with intentions for 6 retail tenancies and 73 dwellings.

With 29m of frontage to Nicholson Street and an area of 2,250sqm, the site was sold mid last year by Vinci Carbone.

Putting Nicholson Street's current apartment boom into perspective, the only recent major completion along its northern stretch has been TreViso at 91-93 Nicholson Street which added 31 apartments to the strip.

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

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