Novotel St Kilda ‘pinched’ and ‘crunched’ to make way for Gurner’s Saint Moritz project

St Kilda’s seven-storey Novotel is hosting its last guest, with a 30m excavator brought in to make way for Melbourne’s most lavish development, the $540 million Saint Moritz. This is how the once-popular hotel is being torn down floor by floor.

The excavator pinches the top of the Novotel building, preparing to tear down another piece of it.

St Kilda’s iconic Novotel hotel’s last guest has checked in, and the 30m tall excavator won’t check out until the building has been “crunched” out of existence.

The once-popular seven-storey Esplanade hotel is being systematically torn down to make way for a ritzy new apartment complex by Tim Gurner, with a host of celebrities signed on as future residents.

A multimillion-dollar specialist demolition project began in the first week of September, but could take until December to complete, according to Crema Constructions project manager Andrew Harper.

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“There’s no easy way to demolish a seven-storey building made of concrete,” Mr Harper said.

Demolition started at the Novotel earlier this month.

The long reach excavator that will do most of the hard demolition.

A 30m tall long reach excavator with a pulveriser head on it — a large claw used for demolitions — is on site smashing sections of the building from the top down.

“The excavator goes through and pinches and crunches the building down,” Mr Harper said.

The Novotel’s final moments before hard demolition began.

The excavator rips through the facade of the building, collapsing it floor-by-floor.

The demolition follows months of preparation which included crews ripping out plasterboard walls level-by-level, leaving behind a concrete shell.

Electrical wiring and concrete from the building is expected to be recycled and could find its way into major infrastructure projects.

The hotel after a single day’s worth of demolition work.

“Any opportunity to recycle and reuse, we are very keen to do — not just for costs, but for environmental reasons,” Mr Harper said.

It’s the second major demolition at the site, with the Saint Moritz ice skating rink partially destroyed by fire in 1982 before being completely demolished later that year.

The St Moritz ice-skating rink on fire in St Kilda in 1982.

The building originally started out as the Wattle Path Palais de Danse.

The Novotel St Kilda hotel, originally called the St Moritz, was built in 1991.

Its next chapter will see the prominent site become home to one of Melbourne’s most lavish developments, Gurner’s $540 million Saint Moritz.

Gurner's Saint Moritz development is expected to be among the city’s most lavish buildings to date.

The most expensive apartments will showcase striking features including glass ceilings.

“It will be a fun and exciting process, and we are definitely looking forward to it, with the crown jewel at the end (of demolition) being building a new Melbourne landmark,” Mr Harper said.

A penthouse apartment sold for about $30 million earlier this year and most of the units have fetched multimillion-dollar figures.

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A who’s who of Melbourne’s business elite, including real estate guru Antony Catalano, Sam Newman and Shane Warne are understood to have bought apartments at the opulent development.

Demolition is expected to conclude between November and Christmas this year.