Hundreds of new apartments planned for Northbourne Avenue under amended application
By Georgina Sebar
Updated July 11 2026 - 8:08pm, first published 3:30pm
A further 100 apartments have been proposed for a major Northbourne Avenue building after developers abandoned the original concept.
The Canberra-based property developer, Art Group, has submitted an amendment to its development application for the block of land on the corner of Macarthur Avenue next to the tram stop, where it had intended to build a mixed-use development.
Art Group bought the 13,663-square-metre site - advertised as "the biggest little block on Northbourne" - in 2021 for $19 million.It had previously been the site of Macarthur House, a government building demolished in 2018.
The group submitted plans early the next year to build a five-building complex, one of which would be an 11-storey commercial office building.
The plans were approved by the planning authority in 2023, but Art Group has been unable to secure a tenant for the proposed building, and construction on the empty lot has yet to begin.
The group has now submitted an application to convert the planned commercial office building into a fifth residential apartment building, with just 330 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor.
An artist's impression of the apartment complex planned for the corner of Macarthur Avenue and Northbourne Avenue. Picture supplied
The change would bring the total number of new apartments in the complex from 424 to 527, and would include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as two-storey townhouses and studios.
A communal "active rooftop" would be built on the top floor, adding to the amenities planned in the other buildings, which include a wellness centre, community gallery, pool and workspaces.
Soho precinct completed
The development would be the second on the western side of Northbourne Avenue for Art Group, following the completion of the On Forbes development in 2019.
Last month, the group announced its Soho precinct, which stretches along the eastern side of Northbourne Avenue between the Pavilion Hotel and Morphett Street, was finally complete.
It purchased the 2.6 hectare site for $37 million in 2016 as part of the ACT government's plan to redevelop the public housing along Northbourne Avenue to increase population density along what would become the light rail track to Gungahlin.
The precinct includes 11 buildings in total, including the Mulberry, Calypso, Vermillion and Kashmir developments.
Two of the original public housing units - the bachelor flats on the corner of Morphett Street and the maisonettes - had been given heritage protection the year before the group purchased the site, and were restored by the group as part of the development.
The western side of the corridor is largely owned by JWLand, which purchased the 25,000-square-metre block in 2017 for $45 million. Dubbed "Northbourne Village", the precinct has been under construction at the same time as Soho, and has similarly sought to preserve the site's public housing heritage while building a modern apartment complex.
Further north, TP Dynamics, the developer responsible for the new hotel in Garema Place, redeveloped the Dickson group centre, and is building another mixed-used precinct at the Yowani Country Club.
Public comment on the amendment to the development application ends on Wednesday, July 29.
