Woods Bagot’s design for Lowe Living’s $160 million mixed-use project, located in South Melbourne, has been submitted to local Council shortly following the developer’s acquisition of the site earlier this year.

Located at the junction of Clarendon and York Streets, the site will eventually feature a nine-storey building comprising 1,000 sqm of ground-floor retail, two levels of premium office space and six levels of apartments. A three-level carpark located adjacent to the site will be retained.

The building’s form resembles a tiered shoehorse, in order to maximise natural light. As a result of the design, a number of dual-fronted apartments have been created, with terraces located across the 36 residences. A polychromatic brick facade will maintain and acknowledge the early 20th century architecture featured throughout the region.

Lowe Living Founder Tim Lowe says the submission of the plans represents a significant milestone for the developer. 

“Fundamentally our core philosophy hasn’t changed. We are astutely focused on the luxury owner occupier and downsizer market and have a very specific buyer in mind. By seeking out larger sites in locations like South Melbourne, we can apply this knowledge on a grander scale to projects that have scope for more height and mixed-use applications,” he says.

“This allows us to create larger apartments that are still boutique in terms of volume, just with larger floorplates and more amenity to conceptualise. We always have, and will continue to prioritise luxury, and will be targeting $1.4-$9.5m price points within this South Melbourne project.

“This site in particular, appealed to us because of the demand for luxury commercial in city outskirts like South Melbourne, in particular the distinct lack of super high-end luxury apartment stock in the South Melbourne Market precinct.

“This really was a rare opportunity to find such a large development site in South Melbourne; there really aren’t many remaining undeveloped sites of this scale, if at all.

“We will always retain a focus on the Bayside market but we are keen to support this with a portfolio of larger sites. We are actively targeting more acquisitions and ideally want to be developing 1-2 larger mixed-use projects per annum.”

The building has been designed to achieve a 7-Star NatHERs rating. For more information, visit www.loweliving.com.au.