Pace applies for 12-levels in Fitzroy

Artist’s impression of Pace’s Fitzroy project from Argyle Street.

Pace Development Group has applied to demolish a row of Fitzroy warehouses, including the former Mark Tuckey furniture store, and construct a 12-storey mixed-use complex with basement car park.

The builder, directed by Shane Wilkinson, paid $20 million last July for the 2437 square metre corner site encompassing 223-231 Johnston Street and 369 Gore Street – the latter, the historic Argyle Shirts factory, will be stripped back and retained as part of the proposal.

Pace’s Fitzroy project, as it is proposed to look from Gore Street.

The request being reviewed by City of Yarra prices the works at $26m.

The SJB Architects complex’s lower levels are designed rendered in light grey to replicate a brick or concrete warehouse. The entire Johnston Street side of the complex (artist’s impression, top) would be new.

At its highest and including the rooftop, according to council, it will rise 12 floors and 33.6 metres tall.

All the properties fronting Johnston Street, including My Pet Warehouse and the Mark Tuckey furniture store, will be razed if Pace’s application is approved.

Pace’s development site is opposite the c1910 art nouveau The Star Lyric theatre which Martin Strode’s SMA Projects last year replaced with a 10-level residential building with ground floor shops.

Also in the area (365-369 Smith Street), a nine storey apartment project is proposed. Six floor buildings have been constructed at 160 Argyle Street and 377 George Street, nearby, too.

This pocket of Fitzroy – between Brunswick and Smith street retail strips – is about three kilometres north east of Melbourne’s CBD.

Pace’s Fitzroy proposal

Pace is planning 113 dwellings at Fitzroy – 56 with two bedrooms, and 37 with three, some of these, duplexes.

Twenty flats have been configured with one bedroom.

The complex will also contain two ground floor restricted retail and hospitality spaces – a total of 680 sqm.

Communal areas include an amphitheatre, indoor cinema and podium on the first floor and a terrace on the sixth level.

A rooftop entertainment lounge has been designed with a swimming pool, BBQ area, yoga deck and dining tables.

Pace is planning 153 car parks and 134 bike bays at Fitzroy.

Pace ups pace with developments

Last week Pace launched the leasing campaign for a six-storey office at 160 Blackburn Road, Blackburn, about 16 kilometres east of Melbourne.

In April a horseshoe-shaped 17-floor apartment complex the builder mooted for Epsom Road land until recently forming an edge of Flemington Racecourse, in the city’s inner north west, was approved.

It also sold a newly completed commercial complex in inner north east Collingwood – banking $31.6m last December.

Eight months ago Pace paid $4.5m for a Hawthorn East gym – permit ready for a nine-storey apartment complex.

Instead, the St Kilda based builder said it plans to replace 9 Montrose Street with a commercial project.

Renders of the Fitzroy project submitted by Pace in its application being reviewed by City of Yarra.
The Pace site (shaded) has frontage to Argyle, Gore and Johnston streets.
Inside the Mark Tuckey furniture store, earmarked for demolition.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.