$1bn six-tower Southbank project approved by Victorian Government
Victoria Planning Minister Richard Wynne last month approved a new six tower project on Kavanagh Street, Southbank, which includes a commercial tower, hotel and serviced apartment tower and four residential towers.
The commercial tower will include almost 60,000 square metres of office space and the hotel and serviced apartment tower will have 687 rooms. There will be 2,610 apartments across the four residential towers.
The development of the site, which is currently used as a car park, will also include a childcare centre, a supermarket, shops and a food court with hawker-style stalls, taking total retail space to more than 10,000 square metres.
The six towers will range from 145 metres to 226 metres high with rooftop gardens. The development will also include 894 car parks, a 2,770 square-metre park and a large public square.
Mr Wynne said the outcome allows for height and density while maintaining large space between buildings, minimal overshadowing and plenty of open space.
The application was the largest Mr Wynne has approved in 2015 and has support from the City of Melbourne and Victoria’s Government Architect.
In 2015, Mr Wynne approved 25 inner-city towers, which included almost 10,000 apartments and about 2,400 new hotel rooms, plus more office and retail space.
Mr Wynne said there were another 50 applications under assessment with the Department of Planning and he expected Melbourne’s development industry to enjoy an equally strong 2016.
Source: News Release, Urbanalyst, 19 January, 2016