Demolition has started at 45 to 49 Portman Street, Oakleigh, in Melbourne’s south-east, clearing the site for Punthill Oakleigh Central, a 55-room apartment hotel that builder Jardon Group will deliver for developer BNG Group and accommodation operator LiveStay. The hotel is expected to open in 2028.
Inside Construction reported the start of works, with the room mix set at 38 studios, 14 one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom apartments, including accessible rooms and interconnected apartments aimed at families and groups. Ground-floor and shared spaces take in a reception and lobby, a conference room, a gym, a guest pantry, a laundry and car parking.
It’s the operator’s second Punthill property in the suburb.
LiveStay CEO Zed Sanjana said Oakleigh’s proximity to major employment, education, healthcare and research facilities made it an attractive location.
“The commencement of Punthill Oakleigh Central is particularly exciting for us as it will be our second Punthill property in Oakleigh,” he said.
“That is a strong endorsement of the location and our confidence in the demand for high-quality, flexible accommodation in this part of Melbourne.”
The Monash cluster is doing the pulling
The site sits near the Monash National Employment and Innovation Cluster, which takes in Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, the Victorian Heart Hospital and CSIRO’s Clayton facilities. That’s the demand argument: contractors, visiting clinicians, researchers and project staff who need a bed for a fortnight rather than a night.
BNG Group managing director Richard Han said the project would support growing accommodation demand across the region.
“The project will provide a high-quality accommodation option for the many business, project and leisure visitors coming to this part of Melbourne’s south-east,” he said. “We look forward to seeing the project take shape and becoming part of Oakleigh’s evolving accommodation and commercial landscape.”
Why 55 keys is a carpenter’s job, not a hotel job
Strip the branding off and an apartment hotel is a repetition exercise. Punthill Oakleigh Central will carry 55 rooms across 38 studios, 14 one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom apartments at 45 to 49 Portman Street, Oakleigh, with opening expected in 2028, Inside Construction reported. For the trades following the structure up, that’s the same bathroom pod, the same entry door set, the same wardrobe and bedhead joinery, over and over.
That repetition is where a fitout crew either makes money or bleeds it. Get the first floor’s setout, door jamb detail and joinery scribes right and the rest of the building runs off the same prototype. Get it wrong and you’ve bought yourself 55 variations of the same defect.
The non-standard rooms are the ones worth pricing carefully. Accessible accommodation means wider door openings, different swing clearances and solid blocking behind the linings where grab rails land, so the plasterer and the chippy need to agree on noggings before the sheets go up, not after. Interconnecting apartments add a second door set in a party wall, which brings acoustic and fire separation detailing into a wall that would otherwise have been a straight run.
The shared spaces carry their own packages. A reception and lobby, a conference room, a gym, a guest pantry and a laundry are five distinct fitouts on one level, each with its own joinery, services and finishes, and they typically land late in the program when the trade stack is at its tightest.
What to watch on the program
Right now it’s a demolition site, which means the near-term work is machine operators, spotters, dust and asbestos management, and traffic control on a suburban street. Anyone subbing onto that phase should be working to WorkSafe Victoria’s requirements for demolition and hazardous materials rather than a site’s word for it, and any pre-1990 material on the site should be tested before it’s disturbed.
Neither Jardon Group nor BNG Group has published a contract value or a trade package timetable, and the research for this story turned up no second source on the project beyond the original report.
The date to work back from is 2028. On that timetable, the structure goes up through the middle of the program and the fitout trades, the carpenters, joiners, plasterers and the services crews chasing them, are the ones working through the back half. If you’re in Melbourne’s south-east and your 2027 order book has a hole in it, this is the sort of job worth tracking when the subcontract packages go to market.
Frequently asked questions
When will Punthill Oakleigh Central open?
The 55-room apartment hotel at 45 to 49 Portman Street, Oakleigh, is expected to open in 2028, according to Inside Construction.
How many rooms will the new Oakleigh hotel have?
It will have 55 rooms: 38 studios, 14 one-bedroom apartments and three two-bedroom apartments, including accessible and interconnecting rooms.
Who is building and operating the hotel?
Builder Jardon Group is delivering the project for developer BNG Group, with LiveStay operating it as its second Punthill property in Oakleigh.
Sourced from Inside Construction. Original article.
