MODEL locked in Multiplex to deliver two mass timber build-to-rent towers in Melbourne’s Abbotsford, securing the tier one builder for what will become Australia’s tallest residential timber tower and first Passivhaus-certified apartment complex at scale. The deal, first reported by Green Street News, covers both MODEL on Johnston, the 17-storey cross-laminated timber tower on Johnston Street, and the adaptive reuse of the former Schweppes Cordial Factory on Lithgow Street.
The appointment marks a major milestone for MODEL, which in October outlined its national construction pipeline at Timber Construct 2025, with founder and CEO Rory Hunter telling the conference that cross-laminated timber and Passivhaus standards would be central to the group’s rollout across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Hunter has repeatedly argued that sustainable BTR can deliver rental premiums of 5 to 10 per cent and lift base-case internal rates of return by 400 basis points over a seven-year horizon, citing JLL research.
MODEL on Johnston will rise 17 storeys at 276 Johnston Street, adjacent to Victoria Park train station and a short distance from T3 Collingwood, which remains Australia’s most prominent mass timber commercial benchmark. The 13,000-square-metre development will deliver 200 apartments, with 10 per cent allocated to affordable housing, designed by Warren and Mahoney with structural engineering by BG&E, and targeting a 50 per cent reduction in embodied carbon compared to a conventional build.
Meanwhile, just 500 metres away on Lithgow Street, MODEL will retain the 1886 façade of the former Schweppes Cordial Factory and construct a multi-level mass timber extension behind it, delivering around 150 apartments across 14,000 square metres. Architects Warren and Mahoney are leading the adaptive reuse, with both projects targeting 6-Star Green Star and 9-Star NatHERS ratings, net-zero operational emissions and full Passivhaus certification.
For Multiplex, the contract extends the builder’s mass timber credentials beyond its earlier delivery of La Trobe University’s student accommodation and Monash University’s timber buildings in Victoria, both of which remain reference projects for engineered wood at an institutional scale. The appointment also signals that Australian tier one contractors are increasingly willing to price and schedule cross-laminated timber projects at residential height, a threshold the sector has long struggled to cross commercially.
The deal comes as MODEL moves into the structured phase of fundraising for its $600 million Regenerative Decarbonisation Fund, with former Cbus chief financial officer Ashley Reed joining as CFO in July and an advisory board featuring Jennifer Horrigan, Phill Andrew and Sangeeta Venkatesan, as Wood Central reported. MODEL has publicly committed to delivering more than 5,000 mass timber apartments across the Eastern Seaboard over the next five years.
“Timber aligns with our values and mission, and it’s what the market will demand,” Hunter told Wood Central on the sidelines of Timber Construct 2025, warning that buildings constructed without regard to operational and embodied carbon risked becoming stranded assets as the energy transition accelerates. Both Abbotsford projects were brokered by JLL Australia, with Baker McKenzie’s Dora Stilianos managing the legal transactions for a combined $330 million build that MODEL expects to commence before year-end.
- To learn more about Australia’s most ambitious build-to-rent developer and its plans to grow a pipeline of cross-laminated timber apartment towers in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, click here for Wood Central’s exclusive coverage from last year’s Timber Construct conference.
