Focus Group Investments secures fast-track approval for SJB-designed Fitzroy apartments

Focus Group Investments has wasted little time securing the green light for its next inner-Melbourne apartment project, just months after lodging plans for 63 apartments in Fitzroy.

The Paul De Lutiis-founded developer has secured ministerial approval for its SJB-designed mixed-use development at 64–70 Hanover Street, which was lodged earlier this year through the Victorian Government's Great Design Fast Track pathway.

Apartments.com.au first revealed the plans in May, when Focus Group Investments sought to take advantage of the state-led pathway designed to accelerate well-designed housing projects in established, transport-connected locations.

The approval will see the consolidated Hanover Street site transformed with a part-three, part-eight-storey building comprising 63 residences across a broad mix of studios, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, along with townhouses and duplexes.

There will also be activated uses across the lower levels, while 108 car spaces are included within the approved scheme.

SJB has designed the project, with Tract handling planning and urban design.

The original planning material described the proposal as being of an "exemplary architectural standard", with the residences designed to maximise access to natural light and cross ventilation while incorporating significant communal and landscaped areas throughout the building.

The architecture takes cues from the established character of Fitzroy, balancing the suburb's historic industrial and warehouse fabric with a contemporary residential response.

Its location will likely be one of the major drawcards when Focus Group takes the project to market.

Hanover Street is tucked between two of inner Melbourne's best-known lifestyle strips, Smith Street and Brunswick Street, putting future residents within walking distance of Fitzroy's considerable collection of restaurants, cafés, bars and retail, while remaining just a few kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.

The project adds another significant apartment development to what is becoming an increasingly active Fitzroy pipeline.

Focus Group Investments, founded and led by De Lutiis, has been building its presence across Melbourne's established inner suburbs, targeting sites where existing amenity, transport and limited opportunities for new housing underpin the residential proposition.

Its Hanover Street project is also another early example of developers successfully using Victoria's Great Design Fast Track to shorten the typically lengthy journey between planning submission and approval.

The pathway was introduced as part of the Victorian Government's broader push to accelerate housing delivery, allowing qualifying projects demonstrating strong architecture, sustainability, housing diversity and access to existing infrastructure to be assessed at state level rather than progressing through traditional council planning processes.

Focus Group isn't alone in targeting Fitzroy through the pathway.

In June, Apartments.com.au revealed Antipodean Land Developments had lodged plans for a considerably more boutique 14-apartment project at 11–13 Spring Street, also through the Great Design Fast Track. Edition Office designed the eight-storey proposal around two contributory heritage buildings, with the new architecture split across three distinct forms inspired by Fitzroy's network of laneways.

One of the most exciting projects coming to Fitzroy is Fitzroy Quarter, the redevelopment of XXX. Design-led developer Milieu has been given the reins by the VIC Government to deliver the build-to-sell component of the overarching precinct that will incorporate retail and commercial space.