Developer Starts Up with Two Projects in Same ACT Suburb

A design-led development firm that is yet to be formally launched has proposed its first two projects just 500m from each other in the same Canberra suburb. Justin Tanti, one of three people who founded the Sculptd development firm eight months ago, spent more than a decade as an architect working for practices in the national capital before shifting gears with the new venture. “Our idea, or ethos, is to bring boutique, high quality, highly curated apartments and townhouses to Canberra,” he told The Urban Developer . “We’re working with [Canberra-based] Capezio Copeland interior designers and instead of doing colour schemes—say, light and a dark and a neutral—we’re creating full interior designs, almost like home packages.” The first project filed by Sculptd is a four-storey, seven-apartment building with a 19-space basement carpark at 17 Forbes Street in the suburb of Turner, 2km north of the Australian Capital Territory’s general post office. Set on a 1045sq m block, the project, dubbed Clay, would comprise four three-bedroom apartments and three four-bedroom apartments with a total of 1302.5sq m of floorspace. ▲ A rendering of Sculptd’s inaugural project planned for 17 Forbes Street at Turner in Canberra’s inner north. The project’s ground-floor apartment would have a courtyard and a plunge pool. The facade of the building would have frameless glass balustrades and a rendered finish in a sand-toned colour palette. Sculptd would demolish a 310sq m single-storey brick and tile house under its plans. Public comment on the project is due to close on May 14. Half a kilometre away, at 3 Wedge Crescent also at Turner, Sculptd this week filed plans for a smaller, three-level development with just one apartment per storey. ▲ Sculptd’s second project, at 3 Wedge Crescent , would have just one apartment on each of its three storeys. To be called Ora, the $3-million project would also have a basement car park. Provision has been made for a ground-floor plunge pool. “That site has immense constraints on it,” Tanti said of the development’s 510sq m block. “It is super tight; you could barely do a couple of townhouses. “What we’ve essentially tried to do there is produce density on a site where a lot of developers would just say: ‘No, this is completely too hard’.” The ACT Government is yet to advertise that development online for comment. Tanti said there were economic advantages to teeing off with two projects in the same suburb. “We’re hoping to contract a builder to build both of them and gain efficiencies through construction ... dig one hole, bring [the excavator] over, dig the next one,” he said. “We’re working very closely with a great, reputable Canberra builder that’s done a lot of stuff in the inner north ... and we have a full trade breakdown, build costs for plates, for instance, and we know exactly what [the projects are] going to cost us.” ▲ Justin Tanti is one of three founders of new Canberra developer Sculptd. Tanti was not the project architect for the two developments at Turner, but instead contracted Canberra-based architect Nathan Judd who he had not worked with before. “It’s been very collaborative; I’d go in, and he was a very open,” said the designer-cum-developer who gained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture two suburbs away from Turner at the University of Canberra. “[Sculpt’s founders] were hands-on but there was synergy where one plus one did not equal two, but seven. “If it was with another individual [project architect], I don’t think we would have had the same outcome.” Tanti said Sculptd would focus on infill opportunities in Canberra’s inner north and inner south. “We’ve found that these suburbs, like Turner, while they have a high ticket price to purchase land compared to greenfield sites, they allow us to embed some of the architectural quality,” he said. One of Sculpd’s other founders is Craig Chapman, a partner of real estate firm MARQ, based at Dickson, a suburb that adjoins Turner.

Developer Starts Up with Two Projects in Same ACT Suburb

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