Catholic Not-for-Profit Files Plans for Retirement Village

A Catholic organisation, which began life more than 100 years ago providing accommodation for the blind, has lodged an application to build a $35-million retirement community in Melbourne’s north-east suburbs.

VMCH has filed a planning application with Banyule City Council for 56 apartments in a five-storey retirement village in Ivanhoe East, about 8km from the CBD.

The plan is for a mix of one, two and three-bedroom independent living units, with a roof-top terrace, cinema, wine room, gymnasium, lounge, cafe, restaurant and a chapel. 

The facility is across two adjoining properties on Lower Heidelberg Road and, at 5732sq m, is the biggest property in the immediate area.

Melbourne-based planning consultants Human Habitats lodged the application on behalf of VMCH, saying the Ivanhoe East site had a history of seniors living and specialist accommodation.

“Presently across the site is a decommissioned residential aged-care facility and 23 independent living units,” Human Habitats wrote.

“The buildings have reached their useful life expectancy and are no longer fit-for-purpose.”

Human Habitats said VMCH was in the process of relocating many of the residents to other purpose-built facilities, including a nearby mission-based, affordable housing project under construction.

The intention was to build and hold a long-term residential asset.

▲ The planning application calls for 56 apartments in a five-storey retirement village in Ivanhoe East.

Jackson Clements Burrows Architects will design the building, beating out two other architects in a by-invitation-only design competition.

Of the 56 planned apartments, six will be one bedroom, 37 will be two bedrooms and the remaining 13 will be three bedrooms.

A basement level will provide parking for 81 cars, and there’ll be about 1370sq m of exterior communal space.

At five storeys, the retirement village will rise to a maximum height of 20.4m with the bulk of the building at 18 metres.

However, in pre-lodgement discussions Banyule council has made it clear that building height could be an issue.

In an email written in June, Hayley Plank, from Banyule’s development planning department said, “a four-storey building is seen as more appropriate”.

“The maximum height of 18m, plus a 2.4-metre-high partly covered roof terrace, is significantly greater than any other development within the immediate surrounds,” Plank said.

“Adjoining development includes a line of single-storey dwellings to the west which are all in separate ownership and unlikely to be redeveloped in the near future,” she said.

“The five-storey building will dominate these dwellings and views from the west.”

VMCH began as the Catholic Braille Writers’ Association in 1907, and about 30 years later opened the Villa Maria Hostel—a residence for the blind—in Donald Street, Prahran.