Labor has granted casino giant Crown a massive expansion of its Southbank site, in a deal reached behind closed doors to build Melbourne's tallest skyscraper.
Premier Daniel Andrews' nod for the 90-level tower came despite significant concerns expressed by the Planning Department to a smaller 2015 proposal for the site at 1 Queensbridge Street.
More Victoria News Videos
Crown's 90-storey tower approved
Southbank site will expand to eight hectares, with a $1.75 billion tower topping out 25 metres higher than Eureka.
Crown's "One Queensbridge" tower will, at 322-metres high, eclipse the Eureka Tower by 25 metres.
The $1.75 billion skyscraper will have a luxury 388-room hotel linked to its gambling floor via a "sky bridge" over Queensbridge Street.
Crown has also been given approval to build 708 apartments in the tower, which will make it one of Southbank's biggest residential developments.
Crown's new tower will blot out river views for the owners of apartments in a neighbouring skyscraper built in 2005. Residents in that tower, Freshwater Place, were on Thursday considering a Supreme Court challenge to the plan.
The government exempted Crown from the normal planning approval process, under the justification that the project was of such importance to the state.
Mr Andrews said it was of state significance because it would create 3000 jobs during construction, and another 1000 ongoing positions once complete.
![A new Crown Casino tower has been approved at Southbank at the site of the old Queensbridge hotel.](/web/20170209090533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/9/2/v/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu9ejm.png/1486630731573.jpg)
As part of the deal, Crown and developer Schiavello Group will pay $100 million towards a community package that will include $25 million to upgrade Queensbridge Square and $15 million towards Sandridge rail bridge.
"The quality of this design outcome, particularly the public realm benefits that will be accessible for all Victorians, really mark this out as a very, very special project," Mr Andrews said.
![An artist's impression shows how the tower will alter the city skyline.](/web/20170209090533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/w/a/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu9ejm.png/1486630731573.jpg)
But RMIT planning academic Michael Buxton said Labor's approval of more than 700 apartments in the tower exposed the reality of the project.
"This is primarily an approval for an apartment tower in another guise, in an area where we have already got a glut of them," he said. "It's just a huge free kick to Crown."
![Crown's 90-storey tower will be Melbourne's tallest building.](/web/20170209090533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/s/p/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu9ejm.png/1486630731573.jpg)
Professor Buxton said Crown appeared to have created its own rules for the site. "There is supposedly a rule in place for projects like this, but there are no rules, and the more powerful you are the fewer the rules. What a joke."
Crown's massive tower is three times as dense as new laws put in place by Planning Minister Richard Wynne last year are meant to allow – although the casino's application went in before those laws went live.
![Crown's proposed "sky bridge" over Queensbridge Street.](/web/20170209090533im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/t/v/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu9ejm.png/1486630731573.jpg)
Designed by London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre, also behind Crown's equally contentious Barangaroo skyscraper, the casino's initial plan for the site raised concerns within the Victorian Planning Department.
In 2015, in response to an earlier design for the site of a tower that rose to just 82 levels, a Planning Department officer said – on behalf of the planning minister – that there were "a range of concerns" over the project.
These included "a pedestrian bridge over Queensbridge Street, the over-provision of parking, the height, setbacks and massing".
![graphic](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209090533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/12z7v7/MelbourneHeights629px.jpg)
Despite those concerns, Crown's approved tower is higher, has a near identical footbridge, and has oversupplied parking. It has, however, been set back further from neighbouring buildings.
Last financial year, Crown donated $60,185 to the Labor Party nationally – $11,000 of it to the party's Victorian branch. Nationally, Crown gave even more to the Liberal Party: $108,306 across the party, and $30,360 to its Victorian division.
Greens MP Colleen Hartland said Crown had too much influence over the Andrews government. "Crown seems to [be] allowed to do whatever they want," Ms Hartland said.
![A new Crown Casino tower has been approved at Southbank at the site of the old Queens Bridge hotel.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170209090533im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/9/2/v/p/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x0.png)
Crown casino will contribute $15 million towards a Sandridge rail bridge upgrade as part of the deal. Photo: Justin McManus
Crown Resorts' executive vice-president of strategy and development Todd Nisbet said the casino's hotels currently operate at 90 per cent occupancy and he believed the new hotel would be full, given Victoria's long list of major events.
The tower will be built just 13 metres from Freshwater Place, a top-end Southbank tower. Apartments facing the west will lose their Yarra vista, and suffer through half a decade of construction.
The chairman of the committee of management of that tower, Peter Renner, said the approval process was terrible.
"The planning process has been corrupted. What was originally knocked back by the minister and planners has now been approved by Crown, saying to them, 'This is too important to go through the planning process.' "
Construction on the project is expected to begin next year.
0 comments
New User? Sign up