New Apartment Building Opposite Albert Park Lake Approved by VCAT
THE VICTORIAN Civil and Administrative Tribunal has given developers the green light to build a 12-level apartment building in Queens Road, opposite Albert Park Lake and Melbourne’s Formula 1 race track.
A development consortium backed by Macquarie Bank, and the Peloton Group, says it is now reviewing whether to sell the site, or start marketing the 91-units, within the Bates Smart designed building.
The consortium paid $7.7 million for the 2,323 square metre development site at 70 Queens Road in late 2007.
The redevelopment proposal for the site will not include retaining the existing but ramshackle 106-year old Avalon mansion, which is protected by heritage planning controls, but was not on the Heritage Victoria register. Avalon is considered one of the only surviving homes designed by prominent architect William Pitt, who also designed the Princess Theatre and Olderfleet buildings in the CBD.
Once it obtained a permit to demolish Avalon last year, the project was appealed at VCAT by neighbours in St Kilda Road apartment buildings. VCAT rejected this appeal in April.
Just five months before purchasing Avalon, another Macquarie trust paid more than $25 million for the former Zurich office building at 71 Queens Road, next door.
