Lendlease’s Dockland BtR Tower Wins Support

Lendlease’ plans for a 24-storey Docklands tower will go before the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning after the Future Melbourne Committee voted to support the application. 

The City of Melbourne’s planning committee voted unanimously to support the build-to-rent project.

Cox Architecture designed the plans for the tower planned for a 3394sq m site at 899-913 Collins Street, Docklands, one of the last sites left in the Wharf sub-precinct of the Victoria Harbour precinct.

Under the plans Lendlease filed earlier this year, the tower comprises 499 build-to-rent apartments atop a five-storey podium.

The apartment mix is 56 studio apartments, 198 one-bedroom, 224 two-bedroom and 21 three-bedroom apartments.

There would be 103 car spaces across the podium plus 412 bicycle spaces and four motorbike spaces, with vehicle access from Tom Thumb Lane.

The fourth floor would includecommunal facilities such as a swimming pool, gym, sauna, treatment rooms and outdoor dining.

More amenities, including indoor and outdoor dining, and garden spaces, are planned for the 23rd floor.

▲ Final determination for planning approval for Lendlease’s build-to-rent tower will be made by the Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny.

The estimated cost of works according to council documents is $187 million for the project with 57,089sq m of proposed gross floor area.  

Docklands is within the Victoria Harbour precinct, Its development is guided by the Victoria Harbour Development Plan 2010. 

“This application is actually for the development of one of the last remaining parcels of land in Docklands, which is quite a remarkable thing,” City of Melbourne deputy lord mayor Nicholas Reece said at the meeting.

“If you think about what this part of the city looked like just three decades ago, it’s now, I think, one of the best examples of waterfront living in an urban environment in Australia.”

Lendlease head of apartment development Daniel Dugina said that it had been a decades-long plan to transform Victoria Harbour.

“Victoria Harbour has been transformed during the past 20 years to a highly desirable destination with a rich mix of residential, A-grade commercial, retail amenity, public parks and community spaces,” Dugina said.

Reece also noted that Melbourne was where most build-to-rent projects were occurring.

“[It] is also a build-to-rent development [and] Melbourne has really taken a lead with this model of building,” he said.

“We have more build-to-rent developments than anywhere else in the country with vacancy rates as low as 12 per cent.”

▲ The tower plans includes a five-storey podium that would include car parking and communal facilities.

The plans and application will now go back to the Department of Transport and Planning for planning minister Sonya Kilkenny to make final determination.