Plans for site of notorious Ambassador Hotel finally released
THIS notorious Frankston hotel was once so crime-ridden paramedics wouldn’t attend without police escorts. But new plans for the “barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland” have been approved.
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THE FORMER Ambassador Hotel was once so crime-ridden paramedics wouldn’t attend without police escorts. But the Nepean Hwy gateway site is finally getting a welcome transformation.
Plans for a petrol station, convenience store and car wash at the current “bombsite” have got the green light.
Frankston councillors on Monday voted to back the move for a key part of the site.
Cr Kris Bolam said the development would transform what was currently a “barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland”.
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“This proposal is a step forward … it’s a heck of a lot better than the present bombsite that we all know and hate,” he said.
Cr Bolam said people driving past the site in the gateway to Frankston were disgusted by what they saw.
But several other councillors including Glenn Aitken said a service station was not the “best outcome” for the prime site.
“The build itself is average and what concerns me greatly is the almost complete lack of vegetation,” he said.
Cr Quinn McCormack said there were already multiple service stations nearby, adding: “It’s not what our city needs.”
It was previously the site of the derelict Ambassador function centre — renowned for drug use and anti social behaviour — before it was demolished in 2016 and left bare.
The service station plans do not include the Ambassador chapel or former motel units at the rear, which have been used for low cost accommodation and sparked repeated complaints involving anti social behaviour.
The renovated wedding chapel was passed in at auction on October 20 on a vendor bid of $900,000.
The chapel had a reserve of $1 million, Hocking Stuart Frankston agent Anthony Sansalone said
“We are negotiating with several buyers for a deal on the property,” he said.
Leader reported in June that a dispute over whether owner-occupiers should be able to live at the Ambassador units was headed to the planning tribunal.
Unit owners argue a council provision preventing owner-occupiers living there is the “primary cause” of ongoing anti-social problems and say owner-occupiers would take greater pride in the units and report bad behaviour.
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