No pool, but $10.75 million The Block Prahran property plunge to outdo The Block Albert Park
Six split-level, atrium apartments above two restaurants in a converted Prahran office block is the next ambitious renovation proposal by the producers of hit Channel 9 television show The Block.
The production company, Watercress has spent $8.25 million on the 1980s office building near trendy Chapel Street opposite Swinburne University's Prahran campus.
The $2.5 million Brenchley Architects infill works schedule for the three-storey 3540-square-metre building (pictured below) will be mostly internally. It's proposed to have a strong green influence through the embrace of the recycling of older building along to the provision of planter boxes on busy High Street.
"There will be no significant increase in the scale of the building, rather facade changes to accommodate the new internal layout," the development application said.
The shop-top dwelling application proposes to convert the existing office building into a mixed use development, comprising six three-bedroom dwellings along with two roof terraces for two of the apartments, along with a pergola in the front setback.
Each apartment will have an 18 square metre terrace. There will be solar access into all apartments from skylights in the roof.
A total of 14 parking spaces will be provided to the dwellings at the rear of the ground floor with access from Percy Street.
It ground-floor current office space is proposed as two food and drink premises totalling 254 square metres, the ARG Planning submission noted.
The 1,289-square-metre holding at 121-127 High Street Prahran had been listed for sale through Vinci Carbone Property. It had been occupied by communications technology company Vixtel.
The Watercress application, which comes with a culmulative $10.75 million outlay on purchase and renovation outlay, still awaits City of Stonnington planning approval.
RP Data puts the median Prahran apartment price at around $513,000, up around 10% over the past year.
The next series The Block: Fans vs. Favourites begins next week with the historic Dux House warehouse renovation at 47 O'Grady Street in Albert Park which sold by interests associated with billionaire businessman Lloyd Williams last year for $5.9 million.
The Albert Park warehouse will come with a ground floor pool recreation area.
The first series of The Block in Bondi Beach back in 2003 came after the $1.95 million four block acquisition through the Channel 9 company. Such has been the success of the reality television renovation stress series that nowadays that doesn't even come close to the current day renovation costs.
