Office Demolition for Hotel
The five-story building located at 852-858 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn is currently being demolished, to make way for a seven-story hotel. This new development will change the northern end of the Glenferrie shopping precinct, potentially bringing more foot traffic
and new customers to the area.
852-858 Glenferrie Road has been home to office spaces for a number of different businesses over the years since its construction in approximately the 1970s. In 2014, the building was bought by APH Holding who, according to their website, are “a privately owned asset management and investment firm specialising in commercial offices, health, education, hospitality and retail developments”.
In 2018 a planning permit application was submitted to the City of Boroondara to construct a six-story hotel but was later withdrawn. In June 2019, an application was made and then advertised to this time construct a seven-story, 87-suite Novotel Hotel on the site, including a restaurant, bar, function rooms, and gym. 27 objections to the proposal were submitted, pertaining to issues such as visual bulk including the height, amenity including the hotel rooms overlooking dwellings on Sercombe Grove and noise from additional traffic, car lifts, delivery and waste, and lastly traffic/parking including the narrow laneway not being suitable for delivery vehicles, hotel patrons use of residential streets to park and not enough car spaces.
Victorian Planning Provisions stipulate that food and drink premises require a car parking rate of 3.5 spaces per 100 sqm of lease-able floor area and for residential hotels the car parking rate is to the “satisfaction of the responsible authority”, in this case 0.25 spaces per suite/dwelling set out by City of Boroondara.
In May 2020, the planning permit proposal was presented and approved at a City of Boroondara Urban Planning Special Committee meeting. The proposal sought permission for minor alterations to the general building requirements including reducing the “standard car parking requirement associated with a food and drink premises”.
The council approval of the proposal was conditional on some amendments to be made including an increase from 42 to 48 car spaces to be shared among the hotel and food and drink premises, increasing the size of the laneway with bluestone cobbles to match the existing lane, and double glazing on windows for privacy.
Demolition of 852-858 Glenferrie Road is currently underway, having started in late 2020, with construction of the Novotel Hotel set to be completed by 2023.
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