Melbourne-based family-owned developer Samuel Property has been given the go-ahead for a $70-million apartment project on Victoria’s Phillip Island just six months after filing the plans.
“It is by far the quickest, smoothest and least complicated permit process I think we've ever experienced,” Samuel development director Romy Jackson said of the project in Cowes, the island’s main town.
“We did have a couple of pre-application meetings and quite a lot of correspondence back and forth, making sure that they (Bass Coast Shire Council) were happy with what we were coming up with as it was all progressing.”
Samuel’s plans call for 91 apartments in two five-storey buildings above basement and mezzanine car parks on 4105sq m oceanfront site between 6 and 12 Warley Avenue, just off Cowes main esplanade.
The boutique residential developer, headed by Illan Samuel, acquired the site for an undisclosed sum in an off-market transaction mid-way through last year. Plans were lodged shortly after.
Jackson said they would not settle on the land acquisition until mid-year and there were no immediate plans to begin construction.
“The first thing we will start working on this year is the sales, marketing, and creative process,” he said.
“Once that has happened and assuming things are progressing we will look to start having some serious conversations with builders and sign someone on in the second half of the year.”
Jackson said there had already been a lot of interest, much of it from Phillip Island residents.
“There is a bit of a history to that site and it’s well known on the island,” he said. “People have been waiting and wondering for quite a while to see what would eventually happen there.”
From 1923 until 2008, the now-vacant site was home to the Warley Bush Nursing Hospital, which served the island and neighbouring San Remo, a town on the Victorian mainland end of what is now the Phillip Island Bridge.
The two buildings will rise to 16.2m and include a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments. A total of 117 carparking spaces are planned.
Bass Coast unanimously agreed with a planning department recommendation that argued the development “provided well-located, integrated, and diverse housing that meets community needs while reducing the share of new dwellings in greenfield, fringe and dispersed development areas.”
In 2015 the council adopted what is known as the Cowes Activity Centre Plan—which seeks to re-build Cowes—delivering a more compact and walkable town centre, facilitating a vibrant civic precinct, while providing more housing choice, diversity, and affordability in and on the edges of the commercial neighbourhood.
