Three highrise towers have been approved for Melbourne’s Arden Station precinct, signaling a shift toward denser development in the 45-hectare renewal area. The Victorian Government recently approved a 24-storey, $110-million build-to-rent tower on Munster Terrace by Novus, following the July approval of two towers of 24 and 37 storeys on Arden Street. Together, the three projects will deliver more than 790 homes around the new Metro Tunnel station, marking the first major residential progress in the area.
The Novus project at 53-65 Munster Terrace and 110-124 Laurens Street, known as Novus on Laurens, will rise about 90 metres. This is well above the 64-metre discretionary height limit identified for the site. The tower, designed by Rothelowman, will replace lowrise industrial buildings about 100 metres from Arden Station and comprise predominantly one and two-bedroom apartments. The structure will include about 155 square metres of resident amenities and 433 square metres of communal open space, alongside a ground-floor lobby, lounge, café and co-working spaces.
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Ten per cent of the homes will be allocated as affordable housing for 15 years, with rents discounted by 25 per cent from market rates. Novus will also contribute $500,000 to the state’s Social Housing Growth Fund. The project was approved through the state’s Development Facilitation Program, which excludes the city from the approvals process. The project’s plans were filed in March as a 24-storey development.
The approval follows the state’s decision in July to approve Arden Village Group’s two-tower project at 189-203 Arden Street. That project will deliver 540 homes across 24 and 37-storey towers on a 5400-square-metre site, together with 2488 square metres of retail space. It was originally proposed at 619 apartments across 28 and 44-storey towers, including 93 affordable homes, before being reduced through the approval process. The state also used its Development Facilitation Program to determine the Arden Village application, bypassing the City of Melbourne’s normal role in the planning process.
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The city had raised concerns over the towers’ height, overshadowing of planned open space, the affordable housing offer and a proposed $17-million exemption from the Arden Development Contributions Plan. These three projects are emerging as the state seeks to establish Arden as a major inner-city renewal precinct. Government planning documents envisage about 15,000 residents and 34,000 jobs across the 45-hectare precinct, with a focus on employment, innovation, health, education and housing. The original planning framework anticipated a more gradual built-form transition, with the greatest heights concentrated around the station. But the economics of development across the precinct are now putting pressure on that approach. The cost of construction, apartment-market conditions and the infrastructure required to address Arden’s flood risk are all weighing on project viability. Charter Keck Cramer national executive director Richard Temlett has argued that greater density around Arden Station could help projects stack up, given the scale of transport infrastructure being delivered and the challenges facing the apartment market.
Flood Mitigation and Infrastructure Challenges
Flood mitigation is a particular issue. Melbourne Water has previously identified drainage, levee and pumping upgrades needed across the precinct, while the Arden Development Contributions Plan provides for infrastructure funding to manage flood risk. A drainage infrastructure contributions overlay was also introduced into the Melbourne Planning Scheme in May, establishing a mechanism for collecting levies towards drainage works. For developers, additional height and density can help spread land, construction and infrastructure costs across more homes while concentrating development around a major public transport interchange. For planners, the challenge is ensuring that individual departures from the established framework do not gradually reshape the precinct without corresponding increases in infrastructure, open space and community facilities.
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The question now is whether the three towers are isolated responses to project viability or the start of a significantly taller Arden. That will become clearer as the state progresses Arden Central, where a private-sector master developer is being selected to shape the next stage of development. Arden is ultimately intended to become a major mixed-use extension of Melbourne’s CBD, with the Metro Tunnel providing direct connections to the CBD and Parkville’s biomedical precinct. The first projects around the station are now beginning to establish a skyline that is considerably taller than the original vision for the precinct.
