Moray tower endorsed

The City of Melbourne has shown its support for a 51-storey tower for the corner of Moray and Hancock streets in Southbank.

Councillors unanimously endorsed the 171-metre application at the Future Melbourne Committee meeting on March 21, which will now go before Minister for Planning Richard Wynne for approval.

Developer Capital Eight Pty Ltd’s $225 million proposal comprises 287 one, two and three-bedroom apartments, ground floor retail space and 2825sqm of office space from levels one to five.

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

Officers mainly noted that they held concerns about the “uncharacteristically small apartment sizes and configuration”, external amenity and the design of the ground floor canopies.

However, council’s chair of planning Cr Nick Reece told last month’s meeting that discussions between officers and the developer had resulted in altering some of the apartment designs.

Speaking at the meeting, representative of the developer Brodie Blades told councillors that the developer was seeking to “set a new benchmark” for Southbank.

While he didn’t agree with Mr Blade’s assessment, Cr Rohan Leppert said 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