Apartment Scheme Approved for Fitzroy Art Deco Garage

Plans to transform a former 1930s Art Deco garage into an $80-million apartment project have been approved for the Victorian capital. 

The Department for Transport and Planning granted CBE AsiaPacific  a ministerial permit this month, clearing the way for the project on the 2024sq m Fitzroy North site. 

The plan for 201-215 Queens Parade and 6-12 Dummett Crescent, 4km north-east of the Melbourne CBD, was submitted late last year.

The  Clifton Motor Hill Garage, a heritage-listed garage designed by architect James H Wardrop in 1938-39 to match the architecture of the neighbourhing United Kingdom Hotel, occupies the site. 

CBE AsiaPacific has directors are listed as Stephen and Philip Jenkins, and Abraham Pace in ASIC documents. 

It submitted the plans via the Development Facilitation Program for the project, which will preserve the garage and add a 12-storey residential building at the rear of the site. 

The plan includes 98 apartments—10 per cent as affordable homes. 

▲ A rendering of the CHT Architects-designed project on Queens Parade and Dummett Crescent at Fitzroy North.

A five-storey building stepped down from the larger built form will sit on the same site as the garage on Queens Parade. Partial demolition and reconstruction of the heritage item is part of the plan. 

The Art Deco vertical “fin” atop the garage will be incorporated into the building by the podium that retains the prominence of the former UK Hotel and Clifton Motors Garage, an assessment report said.  

The scheme designed by CHT Architects includes four levels of basement parking for 142 cars, as well as 780sq m of ground floor retail.

The site is 200m from the Clifton Hill Railway Station.

▲ An image of the garage from the 1970s. It will undergo partial demolition, reconstruction and restoration to preserve its architectural significance.

The project, which has a development value of $80 million, is within the Clifton Hill and Fitzroy North neighborhood activity centres, surrounded by medium-density development. The Queens Parade shopping strip is 100m south-west of the site. 

The Yarra City Council did not support the proposal, saying it did not respond appropriately to the heritage precinct and would result in poor internal apartment amenity.

However the department said that the assessment responded to issues raised by the council and other objectors, and approved the permit for the site. 

Construction is planned to begin by December 2027 and be completed by December 2029.