Goya Dmytryshchak
Work has started on the largest residential development in Spotswood’s history, a $275 million, 334-dwelling apartment and retail complex.
The Suleman Group family business will own all of the apartments in the build-to-rent project.
Known as ‘Union Quarter’, the development at 31-69 McLister Street will be up to nine storeys high with retail stores at ground level.
A Woolworths supermarket, Dan Murphy’s liquor store and medical centre are among commercial tenants.
Thirty-four apartments have been earmarked to provide accommodation under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The development plan was rejected by Hobsons Bay council in 2017 but later approved on appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Suleman Group managing director Sam Suleman said the project had been 20 years in the making.
“We first acquired the site some two decades ago and have been strategically holding and value-adding the asset, until the appropriate time to activate it came along,” he said.
“We genuinely believe in the underlying housing demand fundamentals, particularly in the fast-gentrifying area of Spotswood, which has experienced rapidly rising demand for quality residential dwellings.
“Union Quarter represents one of the largest and most significant revitalisations in Spotswood in recent times spanning residential, retail and mixed-use.”
He said the project would create 550 jobs during construction and 471 ongoing jobs once complete.
“Projects like this will be essential towards the state’s economic restabilisation post-COVID-19, so we are pleased to have commenced construction in the current cycle with the aim to deliver the project in totality by 2022,” Mr Suleman said.
