Northcote Hartington Street precinct gets permit for 82 homes, hotel

The outlet reports the application was lodged in August 2025 under the Victorian Government’s Development Facilitation Program, and that Darebin City Council raised concerns in a July 2026 submission to the state government. Per Real Estate Source, the council’s concerns covered scale, heritage impacts, landscaping, traffic, noise, residential amenity, apartment heights and tree removal. It also questioned whether non-residential uses suited an established residential area and asked for independent acoustic and wind assessments. The permit was issued after that submission. The outlet’s article does not give a planning application number.

The heritage building was built in stages between 1890 and 1909. Real Estate Source says the plan is to retain and restore it, remove later additions and reconstruct original facades and verandahs, and that a heritage impact statement cites water ingress, poor drainage and roof deterioration.

The numbers

Real Estate Source breaks the 82 homes into 47 apartments in two four-storey buildings on Hartington Street, 22 townhouses on Hawthorn Road and 13 apartments inside the adaptively reused heritage building. Those parts sum to 82.

Other components listed by the outlet are a 23-room hotel, a church, diocesan offices, a ballroom, a bookshop, a gallery, function spaces and 11 artist studios and workshops. A theatre for 430 patrons is planned for the St Georges Road corner, alongside a 110-place early learning centre, a restaurant and a cafe. Parking is four basement levels with 315 car spaces.

On funding, the outlet reports residential sales are intended to help pay for conservation and adaptive reuse, alongside philanthropic and other funding. It says the federal government has committed $10 million, and that Darebin questioned whether that commitment was still valid because the December 2024 deadline for stage one works had passed.

What’s next

Real Estate Source names Kavellaris Urban Design as lead architect, Andronas Conservation Architecture for heritage advice, Acre Landscape Architects for landscape design, Ratio Consultants for planning advice and Hickory as builder. The article does not give a construction start date or a sales launch date, so neither is stated here.

With the permit issued, the questions the outlet leaves open are timing and funding: when works begin, and how the $10 million federal commitment and the sales-led funding come together. Earlier this week we covered a separate Victorian hotel decision, a 164-key hotel at Tullamarine Airport. We will update this story if the Archdiocese or the department publishes further detail.

Source: Real Estate Source, 9 November 2026 (updated 10 November). The Australian Developer has not independently verified the figures.