Plans for a build-to-rent tower duo designed by the architects behind the Gold Coast’s Mondrian hotel have been revealed for Melbourne’s north.
Abbotsford-based 7EVEN Capital wants to raise two 16-storey towers of 400 build-to-rent apartments, dubbed Saint Village, at Preston.
Its “significant” 4900sq m site at 1-3 Newman Street and 54-58 Oakover Road is 7km from the Melbourne CBD.
Building 1 would comprise 173 homes across a 16-storey tower with retail tenancies to activate the ground plane.
At Level 1, the fund manager is planning the 450sq m Saints Row Members Club Gymnasium and a 214sq m basketball court opening on to a central courtyard plaza.
A communal garden of 196sq m would be on Level 2.
The 16-storey Building 2 would comprise 227 build-to-rent units, more tenancies and a residential lobby. Another members’ club and a 1421sq m business club are also proposed—the latter providing coworking and work-from-home facilities.
The tower would have communal terraces and barbecue facilities at levels 12 and 13, and private dining rooms at Level 14.
Homes would be 135 studios, 147 one, 106 two and 12 three-bedroom apartments.
A minimum of 10 per cent of the homes would be affordable.
7EVEN’s planning report said the mix “promotes liveability, attraction and internal amenity”.
There are 195 residential car parking spaces included in the plans plus 24 for visitors.
The planning report said that with parking allocated “as-required” in the build-to-rent typology, it created the “flexibility to repurpose redundant car parking spaces for alternative resident amenity uses”.
The immediate Preston area has a mix of industrial and smaller scale post-war residential uses, according to 7EVEN’s planning report.
But it is due to undergo “significant change” after it was earmarked as a Strategic Development Precinct and Substantial Housing Change Area in the Oakover Village urban renewal precinct.
7EVEN’s site is 500m from the Bell train station and 700m from the Thornbury train station, and near St Georges Road tram routes. It is within an activity centre defined by its proximity to transport, which allowed greater urban intensification.
7EVEN Capital, founded by Daniel Sette and Jamie Baldwin, is the first property development fund for which BMYG Capital, a company under wealth management group Boman, serves as trustee.
Its first asset under management in 2024 was a 77-room hotel on the Sunshine Coast.
