Urban Repair: Indi Footscray Makes Case for What BtR Owes the City

Build-to-rent has spent years justifying itself predominantly on housing supply and affordability grounds. Indi Footscray, which opened this week on a long-vacant railway parcel in Melbourne’s inner west, makes the case that institutional ownership of rental housing carries obligations to the public realm that for-sale development never has to meet. For the better part of a decade, the site close to the station and opposite the picturesque Railway Reserve was empty and largely overlooked. A development permit for the site lapsed without proceeding, leaving what SJB director Nigel Morris describes as something of a scar on the urban fabric at one of Melbourne’s most significant transport nodes. “For us, it was about putting something back that really spoke to Footscray,” Morris tells The Urban Developer . An obligation to the street, to the neighbourhood and to the character of a place was at the centre of how Investa and SJB have framed Indi Footscray since the project’s inception. The development comprises 702 apartments across three buildings of 20, 17 and 8 storeys on a 6916sq m site at 3 McNab Avenue, around 6km west of the Melbourne CBD. Designed by SJB and delivered by Icon for Investa and Oxford Properties Group, the second Indi community in Melbourne and the third nationally has been seven years in the making since Investa acquired the site in 2019. ▲ The three towers are arranged around a heritage-listed Moreton Bay fig tree and have distinct yet cohesive identities, the architects say. The case for urban repair Morris frames the project as “urban repair” rather than infill. That distinction was central to how the project was conceived. While infill describes a physical act of placing housing in a space, repair implies that something was broken and that what replaces it should benefit the surrounding suburb beyond simply delivering housing. That responsibility, Morris says, is made possible by the mechanics of institutional build-to-rent. A for-sale development is built to be sold. Once the apartments are settled, the developer’s relationship with the building effectively ends. A build-to-rent development under institutional ownership operates on a long-term hold model. That permanence changes what an owner is prepared to invest in at street level and changes what a council can reasonably demand of them. An earlier permit for the site, held by Grocon, had proposed a single slab building. Investa’s brief to SJB was to keep the apartment count fixed at 700 but the approach to form was reconsidered from the ground up. Three towers replaced one, each given a distinct colour, material palette and skyline profile. Delete The Maribyrnong City Council was explicit throughout the planning process about its preference for long-term operators over a build-to-sell model. Planning approval ran as an amended permit rather than a fresh application. Investa senior development manager Alana Donoghue says the council’s position throughout was broadly positive. “The council was very supportive of this kind of development because they want to see long-term operators in the area rather than a build-to-sell model,” she tells The Urban Developer . The ground plane activation was central to that goodwill. The previous permit had placed services at street level; the current scheme replaced them with a publicly accessible piazza, retail tenancies and a significant laneway mural. A Footscray building, not just a building at Footscray Morris says the inner west is more parochial than most Melbourne regions: more attached to its own character and more alert to developments that feel “imported”. That parochialism shaped choices across the project, from the podium brickwork referencing Footscray Town Hall and other local heritage buildings, to the 75m cultural mural along McNab Lane curated by public art studio Juddy Roller. Six Melbourne and international artists contributed to the mural designed to celebrate Footscray’s multicultural identity. All artists worked within a shared palette drawn from the colours used across the development. ▲ The Indi Footscray project team in front of Brolga’s section of the 75m McNab Lane mural at this week's ribbon-cutting ceremony. The three towers are arranged around a century-old Moreton Bay fig tree listed under heritage protection, with a deck and dining spaces woven around its canopy, accessible by residents and the community. Arcadia principal Nelson Gomes says an arborist-led process governed design and construction of the adjacent towers, covering root surveys, clearance heights and sequencing throughout. The planting across the podium incorporates ornamental natives, and the garden beneath the fig takes pays homage to the historic Railway Reserve across the road. The dog run design on the upper levels references the bowls club that once occupied the site and the former industrial uses of the Railway Reserve. These are not simply decorative gestures. Each one is a specific decision to make the development “part of Footscray rather than a project that is simply located there”. Shared space, shared identity Morris says as build-to-rent buildings grow in scale, “a sector-wide issue” is that scattered amenity often disorientates residents and the chance encounters that build community often fail to happen. The solution at Indi Footscray is a central hub—Indi Central—from which all shared activity radiates: the ground-floor lobby and piazza, the level three amenity floor linking the two larger towers and distinct rooftop spaces for each building. Delete Communal spaces ( pictured ) were styled by interior decorator Simone Haag, with The Global Living Company carrying that aesthetic through to the furnishings across common areas and apartments. Space for amenities, which include a basketball half-court, co-working spaces, cinema room, wellness facilities, treatment rooms, private dining rooms and rooftop gardens, was designed with flexibility in mind. Rooms that connect to outdoor spaces can be reconfigured and are not locked to a single function. “We’re finding in a lot of our build-to-rent projects that rooms get repurposed six or 12 months in, depending on what residents actually want,” Morris says. Studios, which make up about 20 per cent of the 702-apartment mix, have been the fastest-leasing configuration since the development opened, consistent with patterns across other Investa assets. Donoghue attributes the trend partly to price point but also to the amenity offer: residents are more willing to take a smaller apartment when the building provides a much larger and functional shared living environment. Delete Commitment beyond completion Investa operations director Courtney Raven says the platform’s positioning is built around long-term commitment rather than a fixed program of services. “By investing in elevated shared spaces, onsite services and community experiences, we’re creating a connected living experience that contributes positively to the evolving Footscray precinct,” Raven says. Oxford Properties Group head of Australia Alec Harper says the project reflects the company’s conviction in the asset class. “At Indi Footscray, that translates into delivering high-quality rental housing at scale that is well-connected and puarpose-built to meet the evolving needs of residents in Melbourne’s inner west,” Harper says. Donoghue says the commitment to urban repair won’t end at the ribbon cutting. “It’s not going to be set and forget,” Donoghue says. “There is a responsibility to continue that urban repair philosophy over time. That’s one of the real advantages of institutional ownership.”

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Leon Della Bosca
Thu 21 May 26

Urban Repair: Indi Footscray Makes Case for What BtR Owes the City

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