Cedar Woods has completed and handed over Douglas Apartments in Noble Park, delivering 97 apartments and six ground-floor retail tenancies in one of Melbourne’s established south-eastern activity centres.
The development was delivered in partnership with community housing provider HousingFirst, the Victorian government and the federal government.
HousingFirst will own and operate the building for social housing, while the Commonwealth and Victorian governments supported the project through the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and the Social Housing Growth Fund (SHGF).
Located beside Noble Park Train Station, Douglas Apartments provides new housing within walking distance of public transport, shops and established services, while adding residential and retail activity to the wider Noble Park precinct.
The completed building brings together social housing and retail space on a site that previously served as surplus commuter parking.
The project comes at a time of continued demand for community housing in Victoria and demonstrates how government, community housing providers and the private sector can work together to deliver new homes and positive community outcomes.
Cedar Woods worked with its project partners and coordinated with numerous stakeholders to convert the underused site into housing in an activity centre close to transport.
Balmain & Co was engaged as the project’s builder and delivered the building alongside the Cedar Woods project team, consultants, subcontractors and trades.
Cedar Woods Managing Director Nathan Blackburne said the handover reflected both the housing outcome and the partnership required to achieve it.
“This project is about something tangible: 97 completed homes in a well-connected part of Melbourne,” said Blackburne.
Blackburne said the project’s location was an important part of the outcome.
“Putting new housing beside public transport and established services makes practical use of well-connected land,” he said.
He noted that providing residents with a place to live was the most important outcome of the development, while the six ground-floor retail tenancies would also add activity to the wider Noble Park precinct.
The retail component is expected to contribute to street-level activation in the area, complementing the new residential population moving into the building.
The project stands as an example of how surplus or underused government-owned land, such as former commuter car parks, can be repurposed to deliver housing outcomes without displacing existing transport infrastructure.
