Five Melbourne towers at planning to watch out for
City of Melbourne are processing a gaggle of towers that are at planning and looking to make their mark on the skyline in years to come.
Across Melbourne and West Melbourne the applications combined have the ability to add hundreds of apartments, plus a considerable lump of short stay accommodation. In fact four of the five towers include hotel accommodation, amounting to 1,000 plus additional rooms.
Each of the towers in planning is outlined below:
539-545 Flinders Lane Melbourne
Hotel and serviced apartment accommodation is planned for a significant development site fronting Flinders Street.
Demolition is expected across 540 Flinders Street and 539-545 Flinders Lane for the delivery of two towers of 24 and 32 levels. 476 hotel rooms and 99 serviced apartments are expected across the 1,741 square metre site.
CBRE marketed the site during 2016.
45-55 Dudley Street, West Melbourne
United Asia Group is pushing for approval for the 1,304 square metre site after initially being rebuffed by City of Melbourne.
Having paid approximately $20 million for the Flagstaff City Inn, an application went before Council late last year for what is expected to be a 32 level tower with 189 apartments and 40 hotel rooms in tow. 45-55 Dudley Street is now noted as being at appeal after having failed its initial planning run.
Agent Savills sold the site last year, setting a new a new land record of approximately $15,000 per square metre for West Melbourne in the process.
372-378 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Berjaya Developments is believed to be behind a new office tower is planned to sit above the Hardware Lane precinct.
372-378 Little Bourke Street also spills onto Niagara Lane, with the current low-rise retail tenancies expected to be replaced by a predominantly commercial development spanning 18 levels. The slender yet long site will include retail tenancies along its ground level plane.
Doig Architecture have created the tower's design.
475-485 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
The Flinders Lane proposal went to planning earlier this year with the expectation of yielding 391 new hotel suites within a 27 level tower. Also fronting Highlander Lane, the application directly south of Rialto Towers would replace an existing 4 level commercial building.
Date of first documented occupation onsite spans back to 1839, and consequently the site holds heritage significance "for its potential to contain historical archaeological remains associated with the settlement and growth of early Melbourne. Under the terms of the Heritage Act 2017 there is protection for all historical archaeology sites and objects in the state."
The application includes basement levels.
407-415 King Street, West Melbourne
Developer DCF Property initially tried to gain approval for an 81 metre tower onsite during 2016. With that Plus Architecture-designed tower also rebuffed by City of Melbourne, a new and yet to be seen application was submitted late last year.
Much like the initial application, partial demolition is sought for the corner site which plays host to a two to three storey building which carries an individual Heritage Overlay.
Whereas the initial application included both hotel capacity and apartments, the current multi-storey application is dedicated to hotel use. It is expected that the most recent design would be significantly lower in height.
