Developers Resuscitate Footscray Site Seven Years On

A four-storey apartment complex is being put forward for inner-Melbourne’s Footscray, reviving a defunct proposal from 2016.

Under the plans filed with the Maribyrnong City Council, the 1028sq m site would be redeveloped with a 22-apartment block.

Landowners PHHH Investments No.4, associated with Solent Rises and investor Patrick Honeyborne, have brought in Belfield Planning Consultants to help plan the project. 

Apartments will be a mix of two and three bedrooms sitting atop a basement carpark. 

It will adopt a “contemporary design” and replace existing low-density residential buildings. The wider area consists of three-storey, four-storey and a single 10-storey development.

The development of the site at 11-13 Pickett Street builds on a lapsed permit from 2016. Updated plans include better stormwater drainage infrastructure. 

The site was sold in 2016 and, while not derelict compared to other landbaked or future development sites in Footscray, it has been earmarked for development for nearly eight years with no movement.

The developers said their plans fulfill the need for housing near public transport, as stipulated in the Footscray Metropolitan Activity Centre. 

Footscray MP Katie Hall was this year critical about a number of derelict sites in the area that had been landbanked and left to degrade as developers waited for better development and construction conditions, or other issues in the planning process to resolve. 

She urged the Maribyrnong City Council to look into planning controls to force action, taking aim particularly at the old Forges site and the Little Saigon market—the latter is being turned into a senior living development by UrbanLife.

Interest in Footscray, 5km west of the Melbourne CBD, has been on the rise during the past year, including Birchmore’s five-storey plans for Barkly Street, and Inland Property’s boutique three-storey development.