The Block 2015: meet the show's brains Julian Cress and Julian Brenchley

From kids playing cricket on Sydney’s industrial streets to businessmen playing the property game in Melbourne’s poshest postcodes – meet the best mates behind The Block.

Architect Julian Brenchley and the show’s co-creator and executive producer Julian Cress have been buddies since age eight.

They grew up on the same street at McMahon’s Point, northern Sydney, back when the now fancy suburb was “timber yards and brothels”, Brenchley said.

Decades on and tens of millions of dollars worth of The Block real estate later, they still share a sense of boyhood fun.

The latest five Block apartments – which have transformed the once seedy Hotel Saville in South Yarra, on the corner of Punt and Commercial roads – will be auctioned today.

With the exterior design, Brenchley tips his signature trilby hat not to industrial chic, but to their beloved Star Wars.

Cress and Brenchley saw the first movie together as youngsters in 1977.

The roof of the octagonal tower looks like the wings of a TIE fighter spacecraft, and Brenchley said the steel frame facade – when “squinting every so slightly” – references Hans Solo’s Millenium Falcon.

Along with the show’s co-creator David Barbour, the friends have become property developers by default.

Across The Block’s 12 years and 11 seasons, they have completed luxury reality real estate ventures from Sydney’s beachside Bondi to Melbourne’s hip Prahran.

“We operate under a different criteria for development – we underdevelop, in that we are create really quite special assets,” Brenchley said.

“Developers hate us, because this would have had 60 apartments but instead, we’ve done six.

“We are testing the boundaries of unit typology in the area. We are doing less units and creating a demand for a larger, more substantial dwelling, and then causing valuers and real estate agents all sorts of headaches.”

Few property experts can agree on the prices five Block apartments are likely to achieve at the confidential auctions.

With rooms shaped like pizza slices and designer decor thrown in, there is nothing comparable on the market.

Brenchley has designed every Block residential project – always out of the box, from making over old movie theatres to office spaces – starting with the debut season in Bondi in 2003.

He was on board from the outset, after Cress and Barbour successfully pitched a renovation reality show to then Channel Nine deputy CEO David Gyngell.

“Once it was commissioned, we thought, ‘oh dear’,” Cress said. “It was a great idea on paper but then we had to find a building and get through the design work and everything else.”

Cress was a keen renovator, but reached out to Brenchley for his construction and design nous.

“Every time we make a show, we always try and find a property that has some character about it, but really needs the help that we can bring,” Cress said.

When Brenchley discovered the eyesore site was on the market, it came with a permit for up to 60 apartments.

Some local residents, against the idea of high-density in their pocket of genteel South Yarra, were pleased to see those plans ripped up by the producers.

“The corner of Punt and Commercial roads was a bit of a wasteland – I hope we have changed it,” Brenchley said.

“I know we are in the business of making a show, but in the process, hopefully we are giving something back to Melbourne, which is an added benefit and opportunity.”

The auction results won’t be revealed until series finale at 7.30pm on Wednesday on Channel Nine.