Objectors sent Levande in front of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) but the retirement village developer has now won approval for its Brighton East project.
Levande initially applied to change the existing permit for the Oak Grange Retirement Village at 695-707 Hawthorn Road in Melbourne’s wealthy suburb of Brighton East.
The existing permit was filed by Stockland prior to its sale of its retirement village arm in 2022 for $982 million to Sweden-based EQT Infrastructure V Investments Singapore PTE Ltd (EQT).
EQT then rebranded the arm as Levande.
The original permit for the 16,880sq m site was to redevelop the existing 110 units and facilities to create six three to five-storey buildings with 266 carparking bays in a basement level and 208 units.
Permit changes included carparking bay layouts changes, a reduction in the number of units to 201 and height changes with increases for three buildings and a reduced height for two.
When the council granted the permit changes, objectors appealed to VCAT.
Concerns included creating three and four-bedroom units was more like housing than a retirement village and that the height changes would impact the neighbourhood.
Council, Melbourne Water and other referral authorities had no objections to the application.
VCAT ruled in favour of the changes, setting out its order on January 24, 2025 after a hearing on October 21, 2024.
Oak Grange Retirement Village was built in 1985 and is currently listed as withheld from sale on the Levande website.
The site has an existing frontage of 111m on Hawthorn Road.
Levande filed its application under Oak Grange Pty Ltd whose ultimate holding company is EQT, according to ASIC records.
EQT is a global investment organisation and has $A128 billion (€77 billion) in assets under management across 36 funds.
Levande was contacted for comment prior to publication.
