Yarra overshadow blocks 250-room hotel
Construction industry super fund CBUS is seeking approval for a new skyscraper to replace the 1960s Suncorp building on Melbourne’s Collins Street. But lord mayor Robert Doyle has urged Victoria’s minister of planning Matthew Guy to reject the proposal as it risks overshadowing of the Yarra’s south bank in winter.
CBUS, that owns the site including the major plaza forecourt, wants to build a 300m tower – designed by architects Woods Bagot and US firm SHoP Architects – that would include 400 apartments, 250 hotel rooms and about 20 levels of office space.
The existing building on the site, built by National Mutual in 1965, has been fenced off to the public for two years and the council recently gave permission for the existing tower to be demolished.
The council report says the proposal ”cannot satisfactorily facilitate a development which justifies an exemption” to the overshadowing rules.
