RetailMarisa WikramanayakeTue 07 Mar 23
Lang Walker’s Goods Shed Project Wins Support
The Future Melbourne Committee has voted unanimously to support the minister granting planning permission for rich-lister and Walker Corporation owner Lang Walker’s controversial Docklands twin tower project.
Walker's plans for the site included two 46-storey towers to be built over the No 2 Goods Shed, a heritage-listed building, at 731-735 Bourke Street and 44 Village Street in Docklands’ Batman Hill, with a construction cost of $750 million.
It is expected to create office space in the towers along with uses such as an events space, education centre and retail in the Goods Shed.
A dining precinct is also planned as is the revitalisation of Village Street.
The developer spoke at the meeting and estimated that about $3 billion will be added to Melbourne economy per year and that the premium grade office spaces would cater for 12,750 workers.
“The Goods Shed is one of Australia’s most remarkable heritage buildings - as one of the longest buildings in the southern hemisphere,” deputy lord mayor Nicholas Reece said.
“In many ways it is the building that Melbourne forgot about for decades and even though it had a renaissance in the early 2000s, I don't think it has ever reached anywhere near the full potential of what it could be.”
Heritage Victoria rejected the application in January this year after the Royal Historical Society and the National Trust opposed the plans.
An estimated 41 per cent of the building would be demolished if the plans went ahead.
It was confirmed during the meeting that Walker Corporation is appealing the Heritage Victoria decision.
“We have appealed the heritage decision and we haven’t requested the minister to call it in,” Urbis director Sarah Horsfield said.
Under the ministerial referral process, while the planning minister makes the final decision, the City of Melbourne can only consider the planning aspects of the application against the planning scheme and cannot make any decisions based on heritage matters.
Heritage Victoria instead acts as the relevant authority on heritage considerations during a ministerial referral process.
The No 2 Goods Shed was built in 1889 and is the largest example of a 19th century railway goods building in the country.
Walker Corporation bought the northern half of the site from an Abacus-controlled entity for $56 million consolidating its ownership of the entire site.
Sky lobbies, concierges, end-of-trip facilities and basement level storage for 551 bicycles are all part of the plans.
The site sits next to Melbourne Quarter and the Bureau of Meteorology building.
About 20 per cent of the heritage building was lost when Collins Street was allowed to bisect the long, narrow site.
Development Victoria is a co-applicant and development partner on the project with plans drawn up by Bates Smart Architects.
Determination on the matter will now fall under the state minister Sonya Kilkenny’s purview.
That process will also consider the reports on heritage aspects of the plan from Heritage Victoria and other parties.
Development Victoria is responsible for managing all development occurring in the Docklands area with several towers built by Lang Walker’s Walker Corporation in the Collins Square project.
The project is one of several major projects contributing to a $2.5-billion development application bonanza for the City of Melbourne last year.
