Apartments Planned for Alice Springs Backpackers Site

Making developments stack up in the Northern Territory is a challenge, but  plans for an apartment complex that has won support from the territory government has been filed.
 
The plans for a 174-apartment complex on the former site of a nightclub and backpackers hostel at Alice Springs are now on exhibition.

Under an Exceptional Development Permit, the developer wants to reuse a vacant lot at 94 Todd Street, previously home to the Melanka backpackers hostel and nightclub that was demolished after the site was acquired for a reported $6.12 million in 2006.

The apartments would be across six buildings, five of six storeys and a single five-storey block, plus an office in another single-storey building.

According to ASIC documents, applicant Melanka Pty Ltd is a vehicle of developer Michael Sitzler, David Ross and Randle Walker. The three are active in development and Indigenous land rights movements in the Northern Territory.

The latter two directors are also listed as the director and company secretary of the Central Land Council, which consists of 90 Aboriginal women and men elected by their communities to help reclaim land rights and support the management and development of the land.

The Alice Springs proposal is being supported by the Northern Territory’s Regional Accommodation project.

Tenders were sought for the Accelerated Regional Accommodation project in early 2023.

The state government said that these new homes would be designed, delivered and maintained by the private sector, with the Territory Government requiring and committing to a minimum of 10-year head-lease agreements for a key worker accommodation component.

▲ The territory government wanted to boost home development in Alice Springs and Katherine, with a particular focus on key worker accommodation.

If approved, the NT government wpuld acquire 72 of the proposed units through a minimum 10-year head lease. 

The remaining units would be offered for rent or sale on the open market. 

It has been reported that the project will cost approximately $90 million.

The developers are aiming for the project to function “as an integrated dwelling multiple-complex, including car parking, landscaping, communal open space and associated service infrastructure”.

An Exceptional Development Permit (EDP) is being sought for the project near the CBD as  the Northern Territory Planning Scheme does not allow for height variation.

It would therefore require either an amendment to the scheme or an EDP, according to the development application by Cunnington Rosse Town Planning.

Despite the difficulties of getting projects to stack up, government investment, such as the Federal Government's  $4-billion invesment in Indigenous housing, has prompted increased developer interest in the Top End. 

Darwin in particular has had a trickle of projects coming forward, including a  medium-density residential proposal at Johnston earlier this year.