Alfasi wins permit for South Yarra hotel
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has granted Alfasi Group permission to build a 10-storey hotel in South Yarra’s Forest Hill precinct.
Penned by high-end architecture firm Carr Design Group, the five-star, 156-room complex with lower level restaurant and function room, will be tenanted to Hyatt Centric upon completion.
Two basement levels will be occupied for back-of-house functions and a gym.
But the proposal includes no car parks.
Instead, VCAT said, “it is intended that guests with cars would rely on nearby car parking facilities”.
The 2143 square metre Capital City 1 zoned site at 2-10 River Street is walking distance to South Yarra’s train station and the Chapel street retail strip.
City of Stonnington, which rejected Alfasi’s proposal last year, argued the project is twice the street’s preferred maximum (five storey/18 metre) height limit.
Forest Hill has seen rampant high rise apartment development in recent years including a 50-storey complex nearing completion at the north west corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street.
Alfasi paid $18.5 million for the River Street property in late 2017 – part of plans to acquire inner city Melbourne sites which could be appropriate for mid-rise hotels.
For years prior, low-rise factories on the South Yarra block were tenanted to caterer Peter Rowland.