Epworth Eastern rises to match Box Hill's booming population's needs

Epworth Eastern rises to match Box Hill's booming population's needs
Mark BaljakApril 24, 2017

Epworth Eastern is seeking to add another tower to Box Hill's burgeoning skyline.

Whilst previous additions to Epworth's Box Hill location spanning back to 2003 have been sprawling low-rise builds, the health provider is in the midst of seeking approval for a 62m Silver Thomas Hanley-designed tower that would underpin its future operations onsite and cater for the immediate area's booming population.

The expansion of the Hospital is required in order to meet the current and projected short term demand for health services, with the demand for these types of facilities only becoming more vital with a growing and ageing population.

The facilities and services that Epworth offer on the site are currently operating at maximum capacity. The proposed redevelopment of the Epworth Eastern site will deliver a hospital led development, with additional hospital beds, new operating theatres and recovery, and consulting suites.

Urbis: 25 Nelson Street Planning Report

2 operating theatres, 60 overnight acute patient beds, 15 rehab beds and 20 consulting suites constitute the net gain from the proposed development. In order to facilitate works on the tower, existing flats at 25 Nelson Street would be demolished.

At the south-east corner of Epworth Eastern's Box Hill land holding, the new build would also include 3 basement levels for additional car parking facilities, with levels both below and above ground linked to other existing buildings on site.

Epworth Eastern rises to match Box Hill's booming population's needs
25 Nelson Street within the existing Epworth Eastern context. Image: STH

The unveiling of Epworth Eastern's sizeable pursuit is key to supporting Box Hill's march toward becoming a tangible second CBD. Late last year former Planning Manager at the City of Whitehorse, now Meinhardt as Associate Director – Planning Paul McAleer wrote on Box Hill's rise to prominence within the greater Melbourne context.

As the population of Box Hill and surrounding suburbs mushrooms, the need for development to cater for an increasingly aged population has not gone unserved. Developments such as Tao Home which caters specifically for seniors and Bluecross' 40 Dorking Road which includes 221 aged care beds are currently under construction.

Epworth Eastern's pending expansion joins Epworth Richmond and Freemasons East Melbourne as ongoing developments falling under the Epworth banner. Most immediate is the Freemasons site within East Melbourne, where a new 10 storey Grey Street building is taking expressions of interests from medical specialists, with a view toward being completed by late 2018.

Epworth Eastern rises to match Box Hill's booming population's needs
Freemasons Clarendon Campus is next in line for development. Image: Epworth

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

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