ApartmentsHarrison CaithnessThu 24 Sep 26
Multiplex Breaks Ground on SP Setia’s Melbourne CBD Skyscraper
Multiplex has broken ground on a $528-million skyscraper in Melbourne’s CBD.
Malaysian developer SP Setia has engaged the Australian-founded international contractor to deliver the 72-storey Atlas residential tower at 383 La Trobe Street.
The 2851sq m site on Wurundjeri land is less than 200m from Flagstaff station.
SP Setia’s latest approved plan—amended last year from launch figure 839 units—will yield 850 apartments.
Demolition of the existing 1985-built five-storey former federal police headquarters is under way.
“Atlas will be one of the first major residential towers to break ground in Melbourne's CBD in years,” Multiplex director Ross Snowball said.
The site has changed hands a number of times during the past decade.
Developer Investa sold 383 La Trobe Street to Sterling Global for $70.7 million in 2015.
Sterling Global proposed a $700-million luxury unit and hotel designed by French architecture firm Ateliers Jean Nouvel, but offloaded the site to Mirvac in 2018 for $122 million.
Mirvac had designs for a 31-storey office block, but sold the site to SP Setia for $88 million in 2024.
Firms Cox Architecture and Fender Katsalidis have designed the tower that will top a seven-level podium above a four-storey basement.
Residents will have access to a bar, co-working hot desk facilities, gym, pool, sauna and spa.
A Gallery Arcade pedestrian laneway will link La Trobe and Little Lonsdale streets with retail, dining and public art frontages.
Victoria University’s 29-storey vertical city campus neighbours the site to tjhe south.
SP Setia director Hunt Soon See said more than 60 per cent of the apartments in the tower had been sold.
About 1km up the road, Multiplex and SP Setia’s skybridge-linked 59-storey and 61-storey dual-tower project at 308 Exhibition Road completed in 2022.
Last month, the developer signalled the empty 61-storey tower slated for a luxury Shangri-La branded hotel would instead be developed into 393 apartments.
SP Setia filed two student accommodation high rises and a build-to-sell tower—2015 units total—at 185-195 Queensberry Street last month, just north of Melbourne CBD.
Atlas at 383 La Trobe Street is expected to complete in 2030.
