The renaissance of East Melbourne's office market may be just around the corner after boutique developer Time & Place submitted plans for an 11-level office tower on the corner of Victoria Parade and Lansdowne Street.

Time & Place sealed a deal with National Australia Bank last year to snap up two run-down office buildings, one of which was a data centre, on the city's leafy fringe.

The developer paid about $60 million with the intention of converting them into an apartment block.

But it has now turned its back on a trend that has had apartment developers target the upmarket suburb, particularly sites that overlook the famed Fitzroy Gardens.

Nearby Mirvac's luxury The Eastbourne apartment complex, developed in conjunction with the Freemasons on the former Dallas Brooks Hall site, is under way.

Tim Price, founder of Time & Place, said after "instinctively" leaning towards a residential development, the group, "after fair bit of review, discussion, talking to tenant reps and really understanding the precinct", decided to go ahead with a commercial office.

The change of heart follows a growing focus on city-fringe office projects as falling vacancies and rising rents attract developers.

It also supports early city plans that had a part of Victoria Parade in East Melbourne become lined with commercial offices, although many have long lost their lustre, sliding towards B and C-grade status through a lack of renewal.

Powerful private developer Grocon led the charge two years ago into the suburban office space when it applied to build a nine-storey office, later extended to 13 after gaining VCAT approval, in hip inner-city Collingwood.

Grocon development manager David Waldren said the Northumberland project gained final planning approval last week and construction will start later this year.

"We undertook planning for the project at a time when people thought we were nuts," he said. "Now offices in Collingwood are attracting very high levels of interest."

Anchor tenants include skin care brand Aesop and co-working hub operator The Commons.

Leasing rates are understood to be about $450 a square metre, a benchmark that has underpinned the viability of other city fringe projects.

Time & Place's campus-style offering at 200-222 Victoria Parade will dwarf Grocon's.

The developer has designed 2400sqm floor plates, similar to many in the Docklands, in a 26,000 sqm net lease area building with a development value of $96 million and end value of $250 million.

High-profile Sydney-based architecture firm FJMT designed the tower, which is exposed on three sides, a key factor for natural light.

"We're confident we're going to get a strong take up," Mr Price said.

Stuart Allison, a principal of tenant representatives Independent Corporate Property, said larger floor plates with access to natural lighter were generally seen as a positive.

"Anything that's well located will have demand but tenants are still looking for sizeable incentive packages to make a relocation stack up," Mr Allison said.

Leasing incentives on the city fringe are sitting at about 20 to 25 per cent.

"When business is thinking of relocating to the city's fringe, it's generally a cost factor," he said.