Abbotsford's St Crispin House to be partially demolished to make way for 12-storey tower

An historic Abbotsford warehouse will be partly demolished to make way for a 12-storey apartment tower.

It has taken five years of applications and appeals, and two separate Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearings, for the contentious development at St Crispin House in Abbotsford to get the green light. 

The long-fought battle between developers, residents and the local council came to a head earlier this week, when VCAT ruled the apartments would not have an unreasonable impact on the significance of the heritage building.

Protected by heritage overlay, the red brick facade of St Crispin House in Johnston Street will remain, but most of the internal structure will be torn down.

Built in 1923, the industrial warehouse once housed shoe-making machinery and is a symbol of the inner-north’s industrial past.

The site also became a rallying point for the community’s pushback against over-development.

Resident Raymond Endean, who has lived in the area for three decades, campaigned against the development, arguing it would threaten Johnston Street’s thriving businesses and character. 

“That street was developing organically like Brunswick Street and Lygon Street and Gertrude Street had in the past,” he said. 

“It’s become hipsterville. There’s cafes and bars. There’s a hipster barber … there’s art galleries.

“This [tower] will just knock it stone dead.”

Mr Endean, 69, said the apartments would be 80 metres away from the congested intersection of Johnston Street and Hoddle Street, already a “traffic nightmare”.

In 2012, the City of Yarra and VCAT rejected a planning permit to build a 19-storey tower on the site.

The local mayor at the time said the development would have changed the character of the neighbourhood and set a precedent for intensive development. 

Three years later, developer Pace paid $13 million for the site and lodged a new application to build an apartment tower. 

By this time six storeys had been shaved off the building and significant modifications had been made to the tower’s design. 

The case ended up in VCAT, again, in front of presiding member Michael Deidun.

On Monday, Mr Deidun approved the planning permit subject to a number of conditions, which include losing another level, bringing the tower down to 12 storeys.

Mr Deidun said the proposed development was encouraged by a range of state and local government policies aimed at increasing housing supply in urban areas.

The tribunal found that the area surrounding Victoria Park had become part of “a hub of taller development” and Johnston Street was evolving into an “activity centre”.

It was a marked change of language compared to the tribunal’s findings in 2012, when the area was described as “underutilised and containing a variety of empty shop fronts and a desolate Victoria Park football ground”. 

Last week, the tribunal also granted a permit to tear down part of an Ascot Vale theatre built in the 1920s. A five-storey development including a supermarket, childcare centre and apartments is now in the pipeline for the Union Road site.