Amber Property Greenlit for Abbotsford Mixed-Use Project

Developer Amber Property Group has just received planning approval for its mixed-use project in Melbourne’s Abbotsford.

The eight-storey project at the 2428sq m site at 422-430 Johnston Street will have 68 large apartments and two basement levels. 

When the project was initially filed, it had office and retail tenancies and 64 apartments with affordable housing but partway through Amber Property changed the application to ask for permission for retirement-living apartments instead.

“We made a strategic choice to change the permit application to retirement living about six months into the planning process,” Amber Property Group director Jevan Clay said.

“The retirement sector is critically short of quality retirement assets in and around the city and we saw a strong market opportunity.

“In discussions with the City of Yarra council we were told that there are 4500 residents over the age of 70 [years] within 2km of the project.

“The council have been very supportive of the project along the journey and recognise the need to support the ageing population.”

There will be 1490sq m of communal space, a gym, a cinema, a library, a cafe and 900sq m of retail space with 83 carparking spaces across the two basements. 

Architects K2LD designed the plans for the project led by Harry Jackson and David Lee.

Amber will now start an expressions-of-interest campaign to sell the asset with JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Nick MacFie, Simon Quinn and Mark Stafford handling the campaign.

“Our goal with the EoI through JLL will be to connect with like-minded groups who are interested in partnering on this development and owning high-quality assets under a full turn-key scenario,” Clay said.

Construction is expected to start this year. 

▲ Amber Property Group has also secured approval for another of its projects, Cunningham Place, the largest private permit granted in Geelong.

“We aim to start the project in the fourth quarter of 2024 with an expected delivery date of 24 months,” Clay said. 

Amber bought the site in May, 2022 for $22.02 million when five owners sold the existing low-rise showrooms as a joint block, each earning $4.4 million rather than the $1.5 million they would have received selling the lots individually. 

The site has frontages to Trenerry Crescent and Little Turner Street as well as Johnston Street. 

“We always select good quality sites where people want to actually work and live,” Clay said.

“If you can stand on the location and get a sense of community and the vibrancy of a suburb this will always translate into strong demand.

“Suburbs like Abbotsford, Fitzroy and Richmond have all of this in spades and these are the areas we look in for projects.” 

The developer is financially backed by former Holden dealer Geoff Brady.

Amber’s other projects include the Peppers Hotel and the Motley Hotel at Richmond, the McLaren and Co project in Fitzroy and Cunningham Place in Geelong.