Moray St tower approval

Minister for Planning Richard Wynne approved a 51-storey tower development at 42 Moray St last month.

The approval was formally announced by David Lock Associates (DLA), which has been providing statutory town planning services since the project’s inception.

The project, developed by Capital Eight Pty Ltd, comes as yet another high-rise approval for Southbank, adding to our status as Victoria’s and one of Australia’s densest suburbs.

The corner 42 Moray St and 11-13 Hancock St site will comprise a 178-metre tower consisting 280 apartments and approximately 3000 sqm of much-needed employment space.

DLA associate Brodie Blades said the building would “raise the bar” within the existing urban context through exemplary ground floor activation and public realm amenity.

“The building has been designed to act as a landmark and respond to its prominent location at the gateway to the City of Melbourne through the introduction of a district, curvilinear tower form within the existing urban morphology of Southbank,” he said.

“We congratulate all involved in the approval of this project and look forward to seeing construction commence shortly.”

Councillors unanimously endorsed the 171-metre application at the Future Melbourne Committee meeting earlier this year on March 21.

While council’s planning officers supported the application in their report, they recommended endorsement subject to a number of conditions.

Cr Rohan Leppert had said that given the challenges of developing in a floodplain area the application struck a good balance when activating the public realm.

“Balancing the flood constraints with the need to provide some high quality interaction with the public realm and the building interface, this building certainly does that so I’m happy to support it,” he said.