Heritage Melbourne sites set to be hotels
Two historic Melbourne buildings are likely to become hotels. Planning approval has been granted by Victorian planning minister Matthew Guy for a redevelopment of Melbourne’s historic Forum Theatre.
The $100 million project by the theatre’s owner the Marriner family, will include a 32-storey building incorporating a boutique hotel, office and retail space.
Architect Bruce Trethowan said the hotel development would help fund the restoration of the Forum Theatre. “The idea is to clean the whole exterior up, put in some new canopies that replicate the original canopies, and bring back all of the original external lighting, so the whole building is going to look like a little gem.”
Construction work is due to start early next year and the project is expected to be completed by early 2017.
Meanwhile the Uniting Church has entered into an agreement with Leighton Properties that will give the developer a 125-year-lease on the land where the Princess Mary Club presently stands. The prime Lonsdale St land bought was by the church through philanthropic donations in the 1920s. The almost derelict club building would be demolished and replaced with an office tower of at least 30 storeys (pictured).
In exchange Leighton Properties would renovate other existing Uniting Church sites.
