OfficeClare BurnettTue 26 May 26
Tribunal Waves Ahead Oreana’s 12-Storey South Yarra Office Plan
The way has been cleared for a 12-storey office tower put forward by Oreana Group after conditions imposed on the project were lifted by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The developer, founded by Tony and Steven Sass, acquired the site at 169-187 Toorak Road, 5km south of Melbourne CBD, in 2021 for about $35 million.
Plans were filed with the Stonnington City Council in 2022 for a high-end 116-key hotel and offices.
But after the council refused to grant a permit in 2023 for what was then a 16-storey building, the developer tooks its case to VCAT.
VCAT confirmed the refusal, saying that the scale and setback would “overwhelm” the retained heritage buildings on site.
The heritage item in questions is South Yarra Square, a five-level sandstone retail and office property with Italianate and Tudor revival facades, which are of heritage significance.
The piazza fronting Toorak Road was owned by the Hubay and Kornhauser familie, before being strata-subdivided and subsequently sold down to individual owners in 1998.
In the light of that judgement, Oreana filed a fresh planning permit application in 2025, this time proposing a 12-storey office tower.
This deleted the hotel component and put forward 12,222sq m of office space, 1133sq m of food and drink uses and 243sq m of retail.
Three basement levels with 94 car parking spaces were included in this new proposal, which was approved by the council in March 2026, subject to conditions.
One of these was that Oreana delete the top floor, reducing the project to 11 storeys. Others stipulated setback and street wall height requirements.
Oreana then took its case to VCAT again, this time to its advantage.
The provision of a “far more generous” public plaza worked in Oreana’s favour, according to the tribunal, justifying the additional “quantum of height” proposed.
A substantial undercroft area around the plaza, which would support restaurants and bars, was “desirable in the fickle Melbourne weather” according to the VCAT member Michael Deidun.
Added to the “substantial” setback from Toorak Road, the top levels have “limited” visibility.
Deidun said he was not persuaded that there was “any heritage or urban design merit” by the reduced street wall height to Yarra Street, the other condition sought by the council.
The tribunal varied the decision of the council and deleted the conditions, allowing the project to go ahead as originally planned.
The 177 Toorak Road project designed by Fender Katsalidis was described by Oreana as its “most ambitious to date”.
The 2474sq m site will include retail offerings, food and drink and offices. The South Yarra train station is directly west of the site.
Elsewhere at South Yarra, a local buyer syndicate has acquired an apartment block for $5.112 million.
The block at 65 Tivoli Road was sold through Hamish Burgess, Joe Kairouz and Leon Ma of Cushman & Wakefield.
The three-level block of 12 apartments generated 122 offers during the sale process.
