Woolworths leases double-storey supermarket in landmark Queens Place towers

Woolworths has leased a double-storey retail space within the landmark Queens Place apartment complex in the Melbourne CBD.

Mooted to be Australia’s tallest twin-skyscraper complex when completed in 2020, the development will include two 80-storey towers at the top of town, staring down the Queen Victoria Market.

Chinese developer 3L Alliance is building Queens Place at 350 Queen Street, a site it bought off-market, for $135 million, in 2014.

Artist’s impression of a Queens Place entrance foyer.

Cox Architecture and Fender Katsalidis were employed by 3L Alliance to pen the new towers which will contain a total of some 1500 apartments atop a five-level podium and ground floor retail. Construction kicked off earlier this year.

The 21-storey KTS House office building currently on the site will remain, sitting between the new glass apartment buildings.

Agency CRS negotiated the planning for Woolworths, and the lease for 3L Alliance.

“The latest design is based around a 1680 square metre Woolworths convenience store with outstanding ground floor exposure and an escalator servicing the stores lower level trading floor,” the agent’s Principal of Major Projects, Myles Snow, said.

The lease deal comes eight months after Woolworths pre-committed to a double-storey supermarket measuring 3935 sqm in Southbank’s proposed Melbourne Square apartment village.

“These latest two-level supermarket designs are symptomatic of the higher density developments that are occurring in the prime inner-city and city fringe locations of Melbourne,” Mr Snow said, adding that “Woolworths seems to have embraced this concept ahead of their opposition”.

Woolworths have been successfully working on these two-level concepts in prime Sydney locations, Mr Snow said.

An aerial image showing the proposed buildings (super-imposed) and the Queen Victoria Market.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.