Theo Maras’ $27m apartment tower on edge of CBD challenged in court
A high-profile stoush is brewing over a $27m apartment tower by developer Theo Maras, which was approved for the East End – with a neighbour saying it’s too tall.
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A high-profile neighbour of a proposed $27 million luxury apartment development in the city, which developer Theo Maras has dubbed his “legacy” to the East End, is trying to have its development approval thrown out.
Ray Khabbaz, who co-founded Copperpot Dips and went on to buy Australian Wholefoods in 2010 after selling Copperpot, has lodged a Supreme Court challenge to the 16-storey tower’s approval.
Mr Khabbaz, who lives on East Terrace, opposed the development when it went before the State Commission Assessment Panel in 2018, saying its “scale and intensity” wasn’t in keeping with the area, it overlooked his backyard, and would increase traffic and noise.
The development was approved by the SCAP on January 23 this year, and Mr Khabbaz lodged his court case the following day.
The development, on the southeastern corner of Hutt St and East Tce, is a collaboration between Mr Maras and James Arsenikakis.
It would include 38 apartments and would be 53.9m tall, which is well above the recommended 22m maximum building height for the subject land.
The SCAP said in its deliberation on the matter that development guidelines “provide support for development which exceeds the prescribed maximum height where it complements its context and anticipated city form, and embodies specified design and sustainability measures’’.
“A number of developments completed or recently approved within a wider precinct which includes the subject land are of a similar or slightly greater height than the proposed development,’’ the SCAP documents from 2018 say.
“Assuming some or all of the approved developments proceed, there will be built form of
the same or greater height to the south and west of the proposed development.’’
Mr Khabbaz, who declined to comment on the matter, wrote to the SCAP saying he’d lived on East Tce for 11 years, and he and his wife and intended to spend their retirement years there.
While they said they weren’t against the development of the site they, “do however have
concerns that the scale and intensity of the proposal is such that it will significantly impact upon and detrimentally alter the current high level of amenity that is enjoyed by them and their neighbours and which makes this part of the city a desirable location for developments such as that proposed”.
Mr Khabbaz is asking the court for the approval to be quashed.
He is seeking orders that “declare that the development plan consent … is unlawful or invalid’’, and also a finding that the SCAP misread the development plan to contemplate approval of projects of that height.
Mr Maras said he was “disappointed” and “frustrated” that the court case had arisen, but he was convinced the project would set a new standard for apartment developments in the CBD.