Council Greenlights Eight-Storey Mixed-Use Tower on Macedon Street

Templestowe Council granted planning approval on Friday for an eight-storey mixed-use development at 14-18 Macedon Street, ending more than two years of hearings, redesigns, and community consultation that at times grew heated. The project, lodged by Ferngrove Capital Group under permit application TP/2024/0371, will deliver 94 residential apartments above ground-floor retail and a basement car park with 112 spaces. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027.

The timing matters. Templestowe's rental vacancy rate has been running below 1.2 percent for the better part of eighteen months, squeezing households looking to stay within the suburb without buying. The approval arrives as the state government's Updated Housing Strategy places outer-urban nodes under explicit pressure to absorb density, and Templestowe's draft Local Housing Plan, released for public comment in March 2026, identified the Macedon Street corridor as a priority zone for increased built form.

What Gets Built, and Where

The Macedon Street site sits roughly 400 metres from the Templestowe Civic Centre on Foote Street, on land that has been surface car parking since a two-storey commercial block was demolished in 2019. Ferngrove Capital's approved plans show a split of 61 one-bedroom and 33 two-bedroom apartments, with ground-floor tenancies designed for retail or food-and-beverage use facing the footpath. The permit includes a condition requiring 10 percent of dwellings, roughly nine apartments, to be set aside under an affordable housing contribution framework agreed with Council, with those units to be managed through a registered housing provider for a minimum of 15 years.

The design, prepared by Hawthorn-based architects Quillan and Marsh, reduces the original 11-storey proposal submitted in late 2024 after the Templestowe Design Review Panel raised concerns about shadowing on the adjacent Peel Street residential strip. The revised upper levels step back four metres from the northern boundary above the sixth floor. Council's planning officers noted in their assessment report, dated 27 June 2026, that the revised envelope satisfied the suburb's mandatory height controls under the Templestowe Planning Scheme Amendment C88.

Neighbouring businesses in the Macedon Street precinct, including the long-running Anderson's Hardware, which has traded at number 22 since 1987, submitted objections during the consultation period, primarily focused on construction-phase traffic and the reduction of at-grade parking. Council's traffic engineers modelled peak-hour impacts on the Macedon Street and Serpells Road intersection and imposed a condition requiring a Construction Traffic Management Plan to be approved before any works commence.

What the Numbers Reflect

Comparable new one-bedroom apartments in the Templestowe central precinct have been achieving pre-sale prices between $520,000 and $610,000 through 2025 and into 2026, according to listings data tracked through the suburb's quarterly property monitor. At those price points, the project's 94 units represent a total potential sell-down value in the range of $55 million to $65 million, though Ferngrove Capital has not publicly confirmed whether the building will be sold off-the-plan or retained as a build-to-rent asset.

Council's infrastructure contributions schedule pegs the Macedon Street approval at a community infrastructure levy of $1.2 million, payable in two tranches, half before construction begins and the remainder at practical completion. Those funds are earmarked for upgrades to the Templestowe Memorial Park playground on Serpells Road and shared-path improvements between the civic precinct and Koonung Creek Trail.

For residents watching this site, the practical next steps are defined by the permit conditions. Ferngrove Capital has 12 months to submit detailed engineering drawings and the Construction Traffic Management Plan. Council's planning register will carry each lodgement publicly, and any person who made a submission during the original consultation period has the right to request a notice of each condition discharge. The Templestowe Residents Action Group, which has been active through the hearings, confirmed it will monitor permit compliance through that process. Anyone seeking a copy of the approved plans can request them from Council's planning counter at the Foote Street Civic Centre, where documents are available within five business days of a formal request.

This article is general information only and is not personal financial or investment advice. Consider your own circumstances and seek licensed professional advice before making financial decisions.