New Melbourne Apartment Tower

ONE of the inner-city’s most distinctive art deco commercial buildings – on a gateway site connecting West Melbourne to the CBD – will be retained and form the entrance of a major apartment skyscraper.

Planning minister Matthew Guy has approved the development of a 32-level, 368 unit apartment tower on land behind the Streamline Moderne building at 420 Spencer Street, near the Flagstaff Gardens, at the north-west tip of town and within an area that is quickly becoming a development hot-spot.

Constructed in 1930 as the headquarters and showroom for Australian Glass Manufacturers, and extended in 1937, 420 Spencer Street (pictured) was until recently occupied by retailer Nightingale Electrics. The building, recognised by the National Trust, used materials such as metal window door frames in its then-modern design.

Victoria

MAB Launches $350 Million Docklands Towers

March 10, 2011 Marc Pallisco Docklands, MAB, New Melbourne Apartment Tower

ANOTHER year, and MAB Corporation is releasing another major Docklands project.

This time, the development – The Quays – will include two towers.

A south tower will rise 32 storeys and include 275 units. It will be the tallest building in MAB’s 5.3 hectare Docklands pocket.

A north tower will include 230 flats. At ground level, a walkway aims to create a new retail laneway, with cafes and shops.

The project (artist impression, right) will also include 95 serviced apartments. Residents within The Quays will be able to utilise hotel functions like a spa, pool, sauna, health club, gym and yoga studio.

Victoria

Southbank’s Next Skyscraper to be Developed on Rear Yard of JH Boyd Girls School

August 23, 2010 Marc Pallisco New Melbourne Apartment Tower, Southbank

A SLITHER of land behind one of Southbank’s oldest and grandest buildings – the former JH Boyd Girls’ High School – will make way for a major skyscraper, set to become a landmark near the busy intersection where the West Gate Freeway merges with Kings Way.

The City of Melbourne will ask private developers to build a 30-level tower filled with apartments, offices and shops, at the rear of a school site it acquired for $10.5 million in 2005.

Bound by City Road, Kings Way, Kavanagh and Balston streets, the balance of the property will be redeveloped as a cultural and community hub to service Southbank’s growing population, and evolving ethos.

Two parks – one measuring 1000 square metres, and another of 2500 square metres will also be developed on the site over the next four years.

Victoria

New High Rise Apartment Set For Around Citylink Sound Tube

May 4, 2010 Marc Pallisco Ascot Vale, Bensons Property Group, flemington, New Melbourne Apartment Tower, Travancore

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.