New High Rise Apartment Set For Around Citylink Sound Tube

ONE plus of the contentious Melbourne @ 5 Million planning policy is that new high rise apartment towers have the potential to dwarf, or hide, eyesore commission flats which are all too prominent around town.

Now an area of Melbourne where high rise public housing towers are particularly prevalent – around the parts of the Citylink motorway known as “The Zipper” and “The Tube” in Ascot Vale - is set to be joined by a new, more stylish neighbour.

Developer Bensons Property Group has started marketing the last stage of its Travancore on the Park project, a $395 million village being developed on the former Lombard Paper factory site in Mount Alexander Road, which was destroyed by fire in late 2004.

Stage three solely comprises the soon-to-be-prominent, glass, Alexander Lombard Tower which will soar 25 levels and include 396 units, around the freeway junction commuters must decide whether to access the CBD via the northern suburbs (Flemington Road), or Docklands.

Alexander Lombard Tower will almost double the number of dwellings already built or under construction at Travancore on the Park.

Bensons’ redevelopment proposal, which also includes retail and office space, was “fast tracked” by the State Government in 2005.

Seven high rise public housing towers – or “commission flat” buildings - are prominent around the suburb junction of Flemington, North Melbourne and the Ascot Vale pocket known as Travancore.