Victorian planning minister fast tracks 10 projects
Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne – with the backing of the COVID Building Recovery Taskforce – today approved 10 projects worth a total of more than $2 billion.
The biggest – a mixed-use village comprising three towers – is earmarked for a 9720 square metre South Melbourne site opposite South Wharf.
With an end value of more than $1b, the Gurner proposal will include more than 700 dwellings and hotel rooms and a 15-floor, 14,453 sqm office.
Elsewhere in the suburb Mr Wynne gave the green light to a 36-level apartment building over a five storey podium with commercial spaces, at 203-205 Normanby Road.
A couple of kilometres west at 118 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne, a 20-floor office and residential complex was approved, too.
In Toorak, Bill McNee’s Vicland won permission to replace the Toorak Way retail arcade at 489-505 Toorak Rd and a large open-air car park behind it with a nine-level, 10,500 sqm commercial investment containing a supermarket (artist’s impression, top).
In neighbouring Prahran, plots abutting the train station at 70-88 Greville St and 42 Charles St have been approved for a low-rise aged care facility (story continues below).
Two more, in Dandenong, have been given a tick: a 12-storey residential building in McCrae St and a social housing complex in Wilma Avenue.
Only one project is in Melbourne’s north – a 12-floor office, hotel and gym, at 81-89 Rupert St, Collingwood.
Mr Wynne also gave permission for a 14-level apartment tower at 1-3 Hays Place, Geelong, and a solar farm in Toongabbie, near Traralgon.
The COVID Building Recovery Taskforce received 295 applications after it was established five months ago.
Today’s approvals come after the state government recently permitted two major Collins St offices and two high-density residential developments including one worth $2b in Southbank, and another on land Victorian Racing Club recently sold to Pace Development Group, overlooking Flemington Racecourse.
