A problem South Melbourne site looks for new life
Considering the sheer volume of apartment projects Melbourne has absorbed over recent years, the rate of stalled projects is comparatively minuscule.
Very few apartment projects that launched their respective sales campaigns over the last five years failed to progress to construction. One of the more notable projects though was 100 Park Street; the South Melbourne project straddling the busy Kings Way and Park Street intersection had over recent years been expected to be home to an 11 level mixed-use building.
The failure of the project to progress through its then sales campaign has presented an opportunity for current developer RESCOM, which also happens to be headquartered onsite.
With the 2012 VCAT-approved scheme now consigned to history, RESCOM has utilised prolific residential apartment design practice CHT Architects to rework the scheme for the dual fronted 593sqm site which fronts a combined twelve lanes of traffic.
Lodged with City of Port Phillip earlier in the year, the new CHT Architects design seeks approval for a taller 19-storey building which includes offices and 67 apartments. Split between 10 single bedroom dwellings, 40 two bedroom dwellings and 17 three bedroom dwellings, the newly formatted tower provides a greater yield relative to the original design.
483.5 square metres of office space is present over the ground floor, first floor and second floor. 44 car parking spaces and 51 bicycle bays are housed across two basement levels and a portion of the ground floor.
Reaching 60 metres in height, the new 100 Park Street represents RESCOM's biggest apartment project to date, following on from their Fernhill Sandringham project and the at construction Herbert King on Richmond's Lennox Street which includes 40 dwellings.
100 Park Street's initial sales campaign was forsaken, with the site eventually handed over to CBRE City Sales during mid 2015 with all presales attached, but not acted upon.
The current 100 Park Street proposal versus the initial 2012 scheme is chalk and cheese when placed into their respective built form.
Park Street and the immediate surrounds have become one of the more stable apartment development precincts across inner Melbourne. The majority of proposals have pushed through City of Port Phillip's planning channel in the last two years, effectively earmarking this area as a hotbed of apartment activity in years to come.
Including the reworked 100 Park Street, there are currently nine apartment projects either on Park Street or within a 300m radius that have yet to reach fruition. These projects amount to a further 911 apartments in the South Melbourne pipeline.
