A planning application by developer Pace and supermarket giant Woolworths has come under scrutiny after residents rallied against the plans.
Woolworths’ application if for the former ABC TV Studios site at 10-16 Selwyn Street in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick.
Pace had previously applied for and been granted planning permission through a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) decision in 2023 for 134 apartments on the 5746sq m site.
That initial application included two 10-storey towers. Planning permission eventually was also granted for a three-to-six-storey tower and a 10-storey tower.
However, the developer and Woolworths now want to increase the number of apartments to 148 and add office and retail space, and have filed an application for two 10-storey towers through the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning’s fast-track process.
That fast-track process, the Development Facilitation Program, requires at least 10 per cent of the housing component of a project to be set aside for affordable housing in order to qualify.
Plans designed by architects FK and submitted to the department propose 15 apartments set aside to be sold at a 30 per cent discount through a community housing provider at a cost to the developer of $3.6 million.
There would parking for 189 cars and 127 bicycle storage spaces.
If successful, Pace would have bypassed the 2023 VCAT decision.
Elsternwick residents rallied at the weekend against the move, claiming that the developer already had sufficient planning permission to proceed.
The application is now before the Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny, who will make the final decision.
Woolworths bought the site from the ABC in 2019 for $45 million.
The site is 30m north of the Elsternwick Activity Centre—the Glen Huntly Road retail strip and 100m from Elsternwick Train Station.
Another former ABC studio site at 8 Gordon Street, Elsternwick, was bought by developers Milieu and Besen in mid-2021 for $28.875 million.
