Hotel to be blended into downsizers community
LONDON: A hotel is set to be blended into a downsizers community on a mid-city regeneration site.
Apartment projects are taking shape in the 480-hectare Fishermans Bend urban renewal precinct, with Gurner’s $1 billion trio of towers gaining approval.
After a three year planning process the 10,000sq m island site was approved in Victoria’s latest tranche of shovel ready projects.
The site at 2-28 Montague Street will become a multi-tower mixed-use precinct designed by Cox Architecture and comprise 700 residences and hotel rooms, 24 affordable housing units, 14,453sq m of commercial space and 5,668sq m of retail.
Gurner founder Tim Gurner said the project will play a key role in the regeneration of the prominent South Melbourne precinct and its connection to the CBD and Docklands.
“In theory this site could have housed upwards of 2,000 apartments but we wanted to create a range of uses to reflect the vibrant changing landscape of South Melbourne and Fishermans Bend,” Gurner said.
“We are grateful to now be able to move onto the next phase of this project and bring our vision for a truly world-class mixed use precinct on this iconic site to life.
“That vision includes a 4.5-star hotel, a large commercial and retail offering and a series of hero state-of-the-art showrooms at ground level.”
According to the Victorian state government Fishermans Bend is Australia’s largest urban renewal project and will be home to 80,000 residents by 2050.
The precinct has already lured a lot of developers and large-scale projects including the $2 billion new University of Melbourne campus, a $100 million childcare facility, a secondary school, employment precinct, parks and public transport.
However approvals have been hard to come by with lengthy application delays across 26 high-rise projects including the Gurner site.
Private developer R.Corporation has secured $100 million in sales during lockdowns.
More than 150 apartments were sold in the $850 million R.Iconic buildings which were launched at the height of the first wave of Covid in April.
There are 456 apartments across the first stage of the dual luxury tower project which is already under construction and is expected to be completed by 2022.
The 7,660sq m island site on Normanby Road will eventually welcome a 32-storey tower and a 40-storey tower with five podium levels.
Colliers managing director of residential Tim Storey said the various government incentives drove sales.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enter the market in an outstanding location by presenting a range of incentives that remove the hurdle of the usual deposit–the greatest barrier for young buyers today,” Storey said.
“We have many buyers who have been renting in and around the CBD now moving to purchase an apartment and pay less on their mortgage than they are currently paying on rent.”
Currently Colliers forecasts zero apartment completions in the Melbourne CBD area in 2024 with further supply constrained by uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
