Apartments planned for Saint Cloud site on South Yarra bluff
Five years since it was listed for sale, the owner of South Yarra’s reportedly largest – and arguably most prominent – residential land holdings is seeking to replace it with apartments.
If approved, a complex rising five levels above garaging, and containing 12 apartments and 28 car spaces will replace Saint Cloud – accessed from tree-lined Kensington Road and sloping down to Alexandra Avenue and the Yarra River (where it has a second crossover).
The 5600 square metre site currently contains a 929 sqm white semi-circle mansion built about 20 years ago and visible to Monash Freeway commuters, near Gunn Island.
At 61 Kensington Rd, and also with a tennis court, swimming pool and several garden zones, it failed to sell as a prestige home opportunity when it was listed in 2006 for c$12 million.
Later withdrawn, it returned for public sale in 2007 – a more buoyant time in the market – with a c$15.5m price tag.
Last month, the 4,366 sqm Bona Vista estate next door to Saint Cloud (#59 Kensington Rd), sold for c$13m, setting a new suburb price record.
Saint Cloud shares topographical similarities with a property at the top of Tivoli Rd, formerly the Copelen Street Babies Home, but 15 years ago developed into the luxury 80-unit Copelen apartment complex by Becton and GM Hume.
