Apartment Choice

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...

Demolition work has begun at the old Craig Dunain Hospital in Inverness. Work is progressing to transform a blaze- hit Inverness hospital into an upmarket housing development . Robertson Homes is stripping the inside of Gleann Mor House at the former Craig Dunain psychiatric hospital , Westercraigs, as part of work to build 56 new luxury homes. Last night, executive chairman Bill Robertson said the first occupiers will be expected to move into these properties by spring next year. The developer has been transforming the 120- acre site surrounding the old hospital into properties for which it was granted outline planning permission in 2005. A vision for 550 properties at the site has previously been mooted by the house-builder – but the total number of homes is not set in stone. Mr Robertson said: “It (the entire development) is going to make the whole area of more interest to a lot of buyers.” Built in 1864, the landmark Craig Dunain building was gutted by a blaze in September...

Drawing the lines in battle over space By Jeff Simms Scenic Hudson is hoping to nearly double the parking at the base of Mount Beacon to ease congestion at one of the Highlands’ most popular hiking spots . Meanwhile, the Beacon City Council and a developer clashed over who should provide spaces for a new 24- unit apartment building on Main Street. Mount Beacon Representatives from Scenic Hudson appeared before the Planning Board earlier this month to discuss plans to expand the lot at the park from 40 spaces to 77. The project, if approved, would be completed this winter, said Meg Rasmussen, a park planner for the nonprofit conservation group . It would involve moving the Howland Avenue lot entrance farther away from Route 9D and turning it into an exit. Cars routinely line Howland on holidays and weekends when the park’s lot is full. An overflow area north of the lot will be off-limits (it was recently determined to be wetlands), while the existing lot will be widened and orien...