The invitation to the Brunswick East block party in Melbourne promised the standard entertainment one might expect: food trucks, artisan coffee, live music and the opportunity to meet-and-greet a “cult street artist”.



Brunswick East is a gentrified locale about six kilometres north of the central business district. It’s full of cafes, coffee shops and small bars – the kind of place many young professionals and families wish to live but increasingly cannot afford. The invitation was dropped into letterboxes throughout the suburb and those surrounding it, including Coburg, Brunswick and Brunswick West.

But the block party – billed as “the most Melbourne party since avocado on toast” – was not a spontaneous community event. It was thrown by the developer Jameson Capital, which is selling 97 apartments in its BE (Brunswick East) complex. Attendees at the apartment site could pick up information at the event about the one, two and three-bedroom dwellings for sale and speak to one of the financial advisers on hand, though this information was not on the invitation.

Jameson Capital, according to its website, “aims to provide innovative and high-yielding private equity real estate investment opportunities in Australia”.

Dr Max Holleran, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Melbourne and an urban development researcher, says neighbourhood marketing by real estate agencies and developers through food trucks, art events and street parties has long been the norm in the US, particularly in cities such as New York and San Francisco. That the tactic is emerging in Australia no surprise, he says, but the impact of such marketing endeavours on neighbourhoods varied.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The front of a flyer for a ‘block party’ in Brunswick East, Melbourne. Photograph: Melissa Davey

“In New York there has been a lot of arts-based gentrification, where you see encouragement of art spaces by real estate developers – for example, by giving some space for art displays,” he says. “A lot of times, developers commissioning street art as part of developments or to make a neighbourhood more appealing are commissioning 22-year-old privileged white guys with degrees from private colleges, not a local black or Latino artist from the neighbourhood.

“Or developers will throw a block party which combines old and new residents, often ... in an uneasy way. On one hand, the people already living in these neighbourhoods who may be renting can’t object, because the developers are spending money on an event and on the neighbourhood.

“At the same time these events are also very geared toward newcomers and those with money to spend. Arguably these are the kind of events that are not asked for by those originally living there. If you take a look at a lower-income neighbourhood, high on the list of wants is not cultural events, it’s infrastructure and childcare and good schools.”

Holleran says cities in the US have dealt with this tension by requiring developers to allocate a certain number of new apartments as affordable housing. There is no such requirement placed on developers in Melbourne, though there are schemes exploring ways to encourage developers to include it.

There’s nothing wrong with developers contributing to neighbourhoods while attempting to sell properties, Holleran says. But it is worth examining the relationship of the developers with those neighbourhoods.

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“If you see attempts to paint a happy face on a neighbourhood you should also be sceptical and look at changes down the pipeline, including what kinds of development goes on after these artistic interventions,” Holleran says.

Gabrielle Patterson from Capital Property Marketing, the agency promoting Jameson Capital’s Brunswick East apartment complex, says between 80 and 100 groups, including families and couples, came to the block party. About 30% of the properties have been sold.

“Gentrification happens naturally and I don’t think events like this forces it at all,” she says. “What this event came down to was getting locals involved. We had food trucks and a DJ, and the street artist Ghostpatrol was there painting for everyone to see. People not only came to see a local artist create artworks that will exist in the area forever but they also got to see our bespoke housing display.”

Ghostpatrol was contributing street art to the front entrance and lobby of the development, she adds.

Ghostpatrol, whose real name is David Booth, is originally from Tasmania but now lives in Melbourne. He is not a Brunswick East local but he does live in the northern suburbs. He takes no issue with Jameson’s and Capital promoting his contribution to the development as street art but it is not how he describes his work for them.

“There’s a massive difference between a commissioned mural on the side of a house and spontaneous street art, which is a political thing and that you might do without permission,” he says. “I did street art in the past but that doesn’t mean everything I touch is street art, and I’m not in control of those who are marketing [the development]. But I’m really happy to be involved in working alongside architects and designers and, if that makes people happy, then I’m happy to be a part of it.”

In Coburg, a suburb north of Brunswick where about 40% of residents were born overseas and almost half speak a second language, a new street press has been arriving in the mail.

Maul Agony Hellspawn (@cinemaviscera) Hey look, it's Gentrification Quarterly! (Also, as it happens, an elaborate ad for a new apartment complex.) #Coburg pic.twitter.com/hL9eVOlLQm

The first edition of the Coburg Quarterly describes itself as “a publication as eclectic, authentic and distinctive as Coburg itself” and features interviews with a local “entrepreneur and self-confessed coffee connoisseur”, food reviews from local pubs, interviews with local artists, a showcase of community street art and an article on “Trends that won’t date your home”.

The Coburg Quarterly also includes features on Coburg Quarter, described as “a creative new community” of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, and “a carefully considered, contextual and confident piece of pure architecture, with communal and garden spaces on the ground level and a series of contemporary apartments designed for a modern life above”.

The Coburg Quarterly street press is commissioned and paid for by the Melbourne developer Future Estate. Its website describes the company as a developer of “large-scale sites in high growth suburban areas with a focus on urban renewal”. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Dr Katrina Raynor is a postdoctoral researcher working on Transforming Housing, a project focused on shifting policy in Victoria towards more and better affordable housing. She also recently received an invitation to a developer-funded street party. She describes it as “the commodification of community”.

“I think developers will use whatever tactic they think will sell properties and there is nothing inherently wrong with it,” Raynor says. “In fact, I’m quite excited by it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Daley says block parties and street press ‘would bring a little bit of joy to those living in the area’. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

“If you look at developments in the CBD, the marketing around them wasn’t really about creating community or attracting owner-occupiers but it was targeted at investors who are more concerned about return on their asset. So it’s probably a positive thing that developers are saying, ‘Live here in the community’.”

However, she says the key is ensuring suburbs remain diverse and that housing remains affordable to those who have lived in them for decades. In February Victoria’s planning minister, Richard Wynne, announced the rezoning of 100,000 lots within two years in key growth areas of Melbourne.

“I’d like to see that happen on a broader scale,” Raynor says.

The chief executive of the Grattan Institute, John Daley, is also positive about developers highlighting the cultural capital of suburbs and attempting to add to it. Daley, who has written extensively about housing affordability and generational inequality, says block parties and street press “would bring a little bit of joy to those living in the area, and that’s a good thing”.

“The more joy there is in an area, the more people who want to live there and that’s a good thing,” he says.



“The question is, are there indirect costs? The short answer is I don’t know but it’s always the indirect costs that can kill a community. For example, you can have poker machines in a community and people enjoy playing them and they bring in in money to local clubs. But the indirect costs are the harm that inflicts.”