Commission Flats Earmarked for Melbourne CBD Gateway Site

A LANDMARK CBD building – formerly the Department of Defence Drill Hall – will be developed into Melbourne’s next social housing project.
 
The State Government has sold the prominent 74-year old Art Deco building - with its distinguished double storey pillars – to social housing developer Melbourne Affordable Housing which plans to build an 8-level, 59-unit tower on the triangle site.
 
At an estimated cost of about $30 million, the “gateway” development is mooted for the junction where Victoria Street meets Therry Street, opposite the Ibis Hotel, and the Carlton suburb border.
 

The new building is also opposite Grocon’s former Carlton & United Brewery site and various apartment buildings under construction on what was once Ansett and Qantas office headquarters.
 
Other sites being developed into social housing include Footscray’s former Barkly Hotel on Barkly Street, and Carlton’s former Ridgeway Plumbing site, accessed by Elizabeth and Berkeley streets.