Blue Earth Group Seeks Approval for Expanded Coburg Tower
Redevelopment of the former Pentridge Prison site in Melbourne’s inner north rolls on as Blue Earth Group filed revised plans that would expand its approved Stage 2 scheme from 201 to 252 apartments across a 16-storey tower.
The developer filed the revised plans for its Pentridge Village project at 45 Pentridge Boulevard, Coburg with the Department of Transport and Planning under the state’s Development Facilitation Program.
The application proposes an increase from the 201 apartments approved under an earlier permit, expanding the residential yield on the south-west portion of the broader 9485sq m site.
Designed by LIFE Architecture and Urban Design, the building would occupy the corner of Pentridge Boulevard and Urquhart Street, 9km north of the Melbourne CBD.
Stage 1 has already delivered 48 townhouses across the precinct.
The apartment mix comprises one-bedroom, one-bedroom-plus-study and two-bedroom layouts, with two-bedroom options in either one or two-bathroom configurations.
Ground-floor retail and a cafe would anchor the building’s street presence, alongside resident amenities including a business centre, home offices and a gym.
Upper levels would feature cinema rooms, games areas and a 400sq m-plus rooftop terrace with views toward the CBD.
The revised scheme would retain the approved 16-storey building envelope but introduces a refined internal layout and an updated facade treatment.
According to the planning report, the design “will result in a highly resolved architectural, urban design, landscaped and mixed-use outcome befitting of the site’s urban and evolving context”.
Setbacks and cantilevered elements respond to the site’s irregular geometry, creating plaza-like spaces at ground level and improving pedestrian activation along both street frontages.
A setback from level 4 to the north provides a transition to the adjoining Stage 1 townhouse development.
Within the Coburg Major Activity Centre, the proposal joins a growing cluster of residential and mixed-use projects in the area, including nearby developments along Sydney Road and across the Pentridge precinct.
Shayher Group is progressing its twin-tower, 245-apartment scheme inside the original prison walls, while Salvo is working on a DKO Architects-designed $1.2-billion mixed-use redevelopment of the precinct’s southern portion.
Nearby, Development Victoria is advancing a 275-home scheme on a former TAFE site on The Avenue at Coburg, and construction on a Nightingale Housing 72-townhouse project at a Coburg North site is estimated for completion in 2027.
