Skinny tower cut down to size

Southbank’s controversial “skinny skyscraper” apartment tower looks set to finally go ahead – at less than a third of its originally planned size.

A planning application for the site at 54-56 Clarke St was sent to the City of Melbourne by developer BPM on July 9.

It proposes a 24-storey, 80-metre boutique-style apartment tower, significantly smaller than the 74-storey, 240-metre building approved in 2013 by former Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy.

That move caused public and council contempt, and contributed to Mr Guy earning the nickname “Mr Skyscraper” for his inclination to approve large buildings irrespective of local authority views.

Had that building gone ahead – at over 100m higher than the council’s preferred height limit – it would have been Melbourne’s fifth-largest tower.

BPM’s more modest proposal includes 119 apartments, compared with the 270-unit Elysium proposal.

Development manager Tom Small said the demand for apartments in more boutique-style towers was currently strong.

“At this point in time in the market we feel that the smaller 100-200 unit developments are right in the sweet spot,” he said.

“We’re seeing a strong appetite for local investors to purchase this type of product given the good rental returns that are on offer.”

Mr Small said BPM’s 46-level Shadow Play tower on Clarendon St was “achieving excellent rental results for its investors”.

Its application states that the proposed building “results in a significant improvement to the streetscape and public realm in this location, particularly when compared to the existing approval”.

However, residents in the neighbouring Bank Apartments said the new proposal does little to ease their frustrations, and would still be detrimental for most of its occupants.

The new tower would sit five metres back from Bank Apartments.

Jack Tan, speaking on behalf of Bank residents, said the proposed building’s lack of separation from their own would result in a “very bad state of affairs”.

“All of our members are very much concerned and frustrated by it,” he said.

“The new design proposal, although makes the building a lot lower than the previous one, does not make any difference to the Bank Apartments building’s ever-worsening neighbouring environment.”

In September 2013 a Melbourne City Council report found the previously proposed Elysium building would have a negative impact on neighbours.

“The sense of containment would be substantial and oppressive, particularly for dwellings at the lower levels,” the report stated.

Mr Tan said the new boutique building would still impinge on two key rights for most Bank Apartments occupants.

“There is already a building under construction extremely close to Mainpoint Apartments [on nearby City Rd]. I’d assume, sooner or later, it will happen to our building too. And that means, no more sunlight through my bedroom windows, and no more privacy in many of our apartments.”

The planning application, however, states that Clark St and adjacent Hancock St “are already cast in shadow from existing built form” and any “negligible” additional shadowing falls to the south, away from Bank Apartments to the north.

The Clarke St block currently consists of two disused warehouses, which were the subject of two fires within a week of each other in July 2017.