Major 211-home boomer towers planned for heritage hotel site
MELBOURNE: Construction will soon begin on a major new boomer residential development on the edge of the CBD on the site of the heritage-listed former Royal Hotel in Kent Town.
Two residential towers, consisting of a 15-level Hills Tower and 16-level City Tower, containing a combined 211 new homes will be built, while the hotel building will be restored.
The Royal Apartments development, which will be built by Palumbo Group, also includes ground-level retail, communal open space, bicycle parking, and 235 on-site car parks.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said that 20 per cent of the housing would be set aside for “key workers” such as doctors and nurses, and fall into the “affordable” price range of less than $600,000.
“This is what thoughtful planning work looks like,” he said.
“This is where we see state government making the code amendments, making the adjustments in terms of planning reform, but working with the private sector with high quality developers like Palumbo to make things happen, to actually get homes being built.”
Palumbo Group managing director Daniel Palumbo said his team was “extremely excited” to get to work on the site.
“Royal Apartments is a project that truly reflects our long-term commitment to creating places of enduring quality and significance,” he said.
Mr Palumbo confirmed that the development would take around two and a half years to be completed.
Housing Minister Nick Champion said the planning process for the development had taken impacts on traffic into consideration, and that the towers were on a high frequency bus route and a short walk from the CBD.
“What you do find is people use their car less and they use public transport and walk more and that’s a good thing,” he said.
Opposition leader Ashton Hurn said housing was a “prime concern”.
“Anything that we can do to increase, particularly the type of homes that are available, it’s not just about having homes with backyards, which are great for some families, but apartment living is also something that particularly the younger generation are keen on seeing as well,” she said.
“I haven’t seen the finer details but adding additional capacity to our housing supply and our housing market is a good thing.”