160 Whitehorse Road's approval pushes Blackburn's apartment pipeline toward 1,000
Little to no media attention has been given to VCAT's decision to approve development plans for 160 Whitehorse Road.
Proponents behind the bid to redevelop Blackburn's premier development site into a staged mixed-use project were met with success at Victoria's planning tribunal late last month. As many as 263 apartments are now approved for the development designed by Taouk Architects which has been christened Blackburn Place.
The approval has also gone a long way to pushing Blackburn's apartment/townhouse pipeline toward 1,000 dwellings. From planning to construction, Urban.com.au's Project Database is keeping tabs on 970 plus dwellings, spread predominantly across a raft of smaller sized apartment developments.
Blackburn Place though is by far and away the suburb's largest development and could have been far larger.
Initial plans for the site attempted to realise a greater return of apartments, with buildings spanning 14, 10, 10 and 8 storeys originally submitted. Those plans have been tempered with the VCAT-approved outcome seeing 10, 9, 7 and 6 storeys given the nod, resulting in a sizeable reduction in overall apartment numbers from 394 to 263.
Apartments aside, Blackburn Place will also include a string of retail and commercial tenancies, landscaped communal areas and basement parking.
Located within the Blackburn major activity centre, the application spans the largely vacant 8,767 square metre Lexus of Blackburn triangle site that maintains 295 metres of frontage to Whitehorse Road & Railway Parade.
Having sold for $18 million to an Asian-backed developer three years ago, 160 Whitehorse Road's price history has seen steady growth. Previous campaigns saw the site sell for $11.36 million in 2010, $3.25 million in 1986 and $1.3 million in 1980.
Blackburn Place will crown an otherwise steady but relatively subdued Blackburn apartment market.
Smaller projects such as Sovereign and The Royale are at completion, whilst Trio is surfacing above ground; combined these projects stand to add 185 new apartments to the suburb. Furthermore Morton Park, Apollo, Blackburn Apartments and the townhouse aspect dubbed Regent which forms part of the wider 3 Whitehorse Road development are at registrations and/or sales, and stand to add a similar number of dwellings.
Thereafter the balance of projects within the Urban.com.au Project Database are smaller in stature and confined to the planning or approval stages of development.