Committee Endorses Investa’s CBD Office Project

Developer Investa has moved closer to approval for its latest office project plans in the Melbourne CBD. 

The Future Melbourne Committee voted unanimously to support Investa’s proposal at the April 9 committee meeting.

Plans for the project were designed by Hassell Architects and included demolishing a 1000-space carpark at the 3196sq m site at 522-552 Flinders Lane to build a 28-storey office building. 

Investa applied via its company ICPF Nominees Pty Ltd. 

City of Melbourne planning officers had recommended that the Future Melbourne Committee vote to advise the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning that there was no objection to the application.

The plans also included retail tenancies, end-of-trip facilities and two basement levels of parking for 68 cars, 374 bicycles and 12 motorcycles.

A podium will take up the first eight storeys with a double storey undercroft pedestrian entrance, the end-of-trip facilities, retail tenancies and terraces with a 21-storey tower comprising open-plan office floor space on top. 

Deputy lord mayor Nicholas Reece queried the need for demolition as the City of Melbourne supports adaptive reuse rather than demolition in an effort to reduce waste. 

Planners for Investa said that ramps within the car park made it impossible to pursue adaptive reuse, but floorplates for the new building could be adapted in the future to other uses as required.

Council documents listed an estimated development cost for the project of $332 million. 

The plans have also been reviewed twice by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect’s Victorian Design Review Panel.

“This is a very big project,” Reece said.

“It deserves to go through a number of iterations and I’m really pleased to see that as a result of that process [we] got a really high quality design and that the system is working.”

It shares a boundary with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that cuts across the block and fronts to 595 Collins Street and the Exchange Square building at the corner of Kings Street and Flinders Lane.

Development activity has increased along Kings Street, Flinders Lane and Spencer Street in the southwestern corner of Melbourne’s CBD as developers propose hotels and revamped office buildings within mixed-use adaptive reuse projects.

That includes the redevelopment of the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel, once reported to have the largest bar in the state in response to what was thought to be the thirstiest corner of the Melbourne CBD. 

▲ Around the corner from Investa's project, Shesh Gale is redeveloping The Sir Charles Hotham Hotel at Spencer Street.

The Victorian planning minister will make the final determination on the application. 

Melbourne Water may be asked to review the application to ensure it complies with flood-planning measures once Amendment C384 to the Melbourne Planning Scheme has been approved.

The City of Melbourne Council has been trying to reduce the reliance on cars by promoting electric vehicles, scooters and bikes, building public batteries in different neighbourhoods, reducing carparking requirements for buildings and promoting public transportation.

The council also wants to promote infill development and retrofitting of buildings to encourage developers to renovate and revamp buildings rather than demolish them to rebuild.