ApartmentsClare BurnettThu 27 Aug 26
PDG Wins Green Light for $1.5bn Southbank Skyscraper
A “transformative” regeneration proposal for a prime Melbourne CBD address has won the tick of approval from the Victorian government.
PDG’s $1.5-billion, 71-storey development The One at 1 Queens Bridge, will now rise at Southbank after it secured planning approval from the state planning minister.
The project underwent a “thorough” assessment process, PDG said, after the developer filed its application with the Department of Transport and Planning in March, 2026.
The project includes apartments including branded residences, a luxury hotel and offices.
In its submission PDG had proposed 637 apartments for the site—an considerable increase from the originally proposed 483 homes.
The mixed-use plans detail a 181-key hotel, 2762sq m of office and 1741sq m of retail in a 10-storey podium.
The residential mix—192 one, 302 two, 124 three and 14 four-bedroom apartments—includes five penthouses. The development will include parking for 518 vehicles.
Designed by Cox Architecture in collaboration with ODO and PDG, the tower “draws on the movement of the Yarra River, with a sculpted facade articulated by six vertical pleats running the height of the building”.
PDG will adaptively reuse the heritage-listed 1926 Queens Bridge Hotel as a new hospitality venue as part of the project.
The developer said the scheme also boast “one of the largest residential amenity offerings in Australia”, comprising more than 5000sq m of resident facilities on one level.
A revitalisation of Queensbridge Square as a civic destination and pedestrian plaza is also to be undertaken, in partnership with the City of Melbourne.
PDG founder Vince Giuliano said it was the “most significant Planning Permit approval Melbourne has seen in recent years”.
“For more than 15 years, this site has remained underutilised,” Giuliano said.
“This approval enables us to deliver a project that will contribute meaningfully to the revitalisation of Southbank, restore and reactivate an important heritage building, and create a new civic and hospitality destination for Melbourne.”
Earlier, the City of Melbourne had issued a planning permit for demolition works at 9-29 Queens Bridge Street, which are under way.
The PDG project is moving ahead where other projects, such as STH BNK by a Beulah development vehicle, have collapsed in the face of extreme cost pressures.
Melbourne-based PDG, founded by Giuliano in the 1980s, paid $85 million for the 5059sq m Queens Bridge Hotel site at 1-29 Queens Bridge Street in 2024.
It bought the prime city centre site from Blackstone, which had acquired the site in an $8.9-billion assets deal from Crown Casino in 2022.
