Treasury’s Melbourne CBD Office Proposal Clears Hurdle

The Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance’s bid to revamp one of its office assets in the middle of the Melbourne CBD is a step closer to reality. The City of Melbourne’s planning committee, the Future Melbourne Committee, at its meeting on September 4 agreed to the planning application for the heritage State Public Offices building on a 1475sq m site at 436-450 Lonsdale Street in the CBD. Council records list the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance as the owners of the building. The Treasury wants to demolish part of the existing heritage building and build an office tower for an estimated development cost of $135 million. Architecture firm Wardle Architects have designed the plans for the building. The Art Deco facade fronting Lonsdale Street would be retained to a depth of at least 5m including window and door openings as well as the southern-most 10.5m of the eastern elevation of the building. A building lobby entrance on Londsale Street would also be retained to be used as the primary building entrance with entry for end-of-trip facilities to be via Lonsdale Lane. The tower would have a net lettable floor area of 16,932sq m across 22 storeys with 182 bicycle storage spaces split across a basement level and the ground floor. When plans were first filed in July 2024 , a spokesperson for the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning told The Urban Developer that the Victorian Government would use the building primarily for office space but didn’t specify which departments, organisations or agencies would be in the tower. ▲ The State Public Offices, built in two phases on Melbourne ’ s Lonsdale Street. Oakley and Parkes Architects designed the original 1930s five-storey building and the McLennan Bros were responsible for its construction. It lacks a cornice as another five storeys were planned but in 1941-42, Chief Government Architect Percy Everett added three more storeys slightly stepped back from the facade to the building. Initially, the building was to house the State Taxation Office and now neighbours the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Melbourne Children’s Court, the State Titles Office and the Supreme Court Registry. It was closed in 2021 to carry out fire safety work and while it is not on the Victorian Heritage Register, it is included within a Heritage Overlay in the Melbourne Planning Scheme. That left the Future Melbourne Committee to consider any heritage concerns with the proposed plans instead of Heritage Victoria. “It’s a really outstanding development proposal that’s before us here, and it should be, because the old Taxation Office, it’s an art deco, a modern classic of Melbourne,” City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said. “And so anything that comes along to replace it needs to be absolutely first rate, so that, you know, 100 years from now, when people are looking at this site, they are still referring to it in glowing terms as we can about the older tax office.” The committee voted unanimously to inform the Department of Transport and Planning that it did not object to the application. It will now go back to the Department of Transport and Planning where the planning minister will make the final determination.

Treasury’s Melbourne CBD Office Proposal Clears Hurdle

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Treasury’s Melbourne CBD Office Proposal Clears Hurdle

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