Glenelg Seawall: Residents oppose Chasecrown apartment complex

A $165m, 13-storey luxury apartment building on the Glenelg foreshore has drawn the ire of locals with beachside residents planning to fight back.

Artist's impressions of Chasecrown $165m apartment development at 21-25 South Esplanade, Glenelg. Picture: Supplied by Chasecrown

Glenelg residents are fighting back against $165m plans to build a 13-storey luxury apartment building on the foreshore.

Developer Chasecrown’s proposal for the 93-apartment complex on the Seawall Apartments site would see all seven buildings currently on the site demolished.

SOS Save Our Seawall Apartments founding member Karen DeCean said the development would destroy local history in the area.

“It’s completely razing an almost one acre site on the beachfront of Glenelg’s history including two 1882 built mansions which in 1912 became the Holdfast Bay Preparatory College,” Mrs DeCean said.

“The mansions are some of the earliest builds on the foreshore at Glenelg.

“It’s done across the city and the world where developments are able to integrate the history into the development and you don’t just wipe it out.”

Mrs DeCean said the size of the development was completely inappropriate for the area.

The Glenelg Seawall apartments that would be demolished to make way for Chasecrown's $165 million apartment building. Picture: Supplied/Karen DeCean

“The current zoning for the site is for five levels and it’s absolutely horrendous that this absolute monster has just been thrust upon us,” she said.

“The size of the development is something that should be on an arterial road with public transport and the infrastructure that can cope with that amount of people.

“We don’t have the transport here, we don’t have the road system because the road behind it is a tiny little street and we have drainage problems where the streets surrounding already flood in a heavy raining event.”

SOS Save Our Seawall Apartments has launched a petition against the plan which has already attracted more than 800 signatures.

The group is holding a rally at the beach end of Pier Street at 11am on Sunday, February 21.

“We believe that at least the local heritage listed buildings should be retained and the development should be kept to the five storey limit which is currently in place in the zone,” Mrs DeCean said.

A Chasecrown spokesman said an independent heritage review had provided expert advice that the local heritage building in question had low historical authenticity.

“(The review) further concluded that the heritage assessments that led to the Local Heritage listing over-estimated the extent of the surviving historic fabric and residual heritage values of the building,” he said.

“In addition, the building has undergone significant alteration with any attempt to recover its

original historic form requiring approximate reproduction which would add no heritage

value.”

“Chasecrown has received strong community support for these plans as it did for the

award-winning 8 South Esplanade which has been widely recognised for enhancing the built-

form and public amenity along the Glenelg foreshore.”

Pending approval, construction of the project is expected to create 400 local jobs.