City Backs Lendlease’s Triple-Tower Gurrowa Place Plans

The City of Melbourne’s planning committee has voted unanimously to support a triple-tower project in the heart of the CBD.

Lendlease’s Gurrowa Place previously received support from Heritage Victoria for its redevelopment of the heritage-listed Franklin Stores site at the southern end of the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne’s CBD.

The Federal Government, however, has noted that the project has triggered the start of another process that will assess the site and the project plans for its environmental impact.

This means that under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) there is a controlled action that has to be taken and the project plans need to be reviewed due to its proximity to the markets site.

The Queen Victoria Markets site also sits on one of the earliest and largest cemeteries in Melbourne.

City of Melbourne councillor and chair of the Future Melbourne Committee Rohan Leppert said the state planning process and the federal assessment process under the EPBC Act were able to proceed separately, particularly because the council was required to provide its recommendations to the Victorian planning department without delay.

“This is, of course, a very major development, and although some of the submitters aren’t accepting my arguments about what the role of the council today is, I do need to make it very, very clear that we’re not issuing any planning permits today,” Leppert said.

“We are acting as a referral authority to the Minister for Planning, who is the responsible authority that will need to decide essentially one thing, whether or not the application conforms with the development plan that was approved in June 2024.

“We simply don’t have the scope to act in a way to influence the applicant about the form of the application, certainly not in this chamber, or to step into the shoes of Heritage Victoria or the federal department that oversees the EPBC Act and to consider state or national heritage matters; state heritage permits have been issued.”

▲ Kerstin Thompson Architects’ design of the podium entrance to Scape’s student accommodation tower for Gurrowa Place.

The plans for the three towers were brought before the council in two planning applications, the first by Lendlease, the second by Scape. 

In the first, Tower 1 designed by 3XN Australia comprises 42,851sq m of office space over 29 storeys. 

Tower 2, designed by NH Architecture comprises 569 homes across 47 storeys with 81 affordable homes.

The towers would have 953 bicycle storage spaces and 387 carparking spaces, 220 of the latter reserved for the Queen Victoria Market. 

Scape’s application for the third tower comprises 1151 student accommodation beds across 53 storeys plus 229sq m of retail on the ground floor under plans by Kerstin Thompson Architects.

Council documents list an estimated cost of $202.4 million for Scape’s tower and $442.6 million for Lendlease’s Tower 1 and Tower 2. 

The owner of the land for all three towers is the City of Melbourne Council, which has signed an agreement with Lendlease.

▲ A render of the towers from Queen Victoria Markets’ Market Square.

Both applications were referred to the City of Melbourne by the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning with the planning minister the determining authority.

Councillors voted unanimously to inform the Department of Transport and Planning that they supported both applications as they complied with the Development Plan set out in the Development Plan Overlay 11 (DPO 11). 

“The Victorian government is the final decision maker on this planning application, and we’re being invited as the City of Melbourne to provide comment to the Victorian Government about it,” Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said.

“And ultimately, we’re being asked what our view is about whether or not it complies with the relevant planning rules and regulations, particularly the development plan from June and DPO 11, and the short answer to that question is yes, it does comply.

“And therefore, under the planning laws that apply in the City of Melbourne and in Victoria, it should be approved by the city.”

Regardless of the minister’s decision, Lendlease will not be able to move forward with the project until the federal environmental review process has been completed.