Anger at derelict site greeting cruise ship tourists to Melbourne

UPDATE: BLACK hoarding has been erected around a derelict site at one of Melbourne’s tourist gateways that has been slammed as an embarrassing eyesore.

Boards Being Put on Port Melb Site

BLACK hoarding has been erected around a derelict site at one of Melbourne’s tourist gateways that has been slammed as an embarrassing eyesore.

And the Andrews Government has called on the site’s owner and the local council to meet and resolve the issue.

A 10-year planning fiasco has seen hundreds of thousands of cruise and ferry ship passengers a year dock to be confronted by a burnt-out, graffiti-ridden building on a vast weed-infested, rubbish-strewn block.

The site, near historic Station Pier, the traditional arrival point for migrants arriving by ship, sits alongside the Port Melbourne light rail station and a tourist bus stop.

Plans for a $200 million 19-storey tower called Waterfront Place had been put forward to fix the eyesore.

But the project is in limbo after the government slapped a 10-storey limit on developments in the area.

This follows a decade’s wrangling over red tape.

Workers erect black boards around a derelict site at one of Melbourne’s tourist gateways. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Tourists are greeted by the derelict site. Picture: Mike Keating.

A tourist snaps the “Welcome to Melbourne” sign before the abandoned building. Picture: Mike Keating.

Developer Action Group’s spokesman Andrew Nehme said Action Group was spending $120,000, on its own initiative, to put a hoarding around the site so it would be less unsightly.

“I’m trying to make the site more presentable,” he said.

Work began yesterday to construct the two-and-a-half metre black hoarding around the perimeter of the site.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne today called on the parties to compromise and determine a suitable development for the site.

“It’s a very very poor outcome in terms of welcoming people to Melbourne when you look at a site that’s really just full of junk and rubbish,” he said.

“It’s now up to the Kuwaiti developer to either get on and build this 10-storey development option … or if he doesn’t want to proceed with that, go back and talk to the council about what other options are available to him.”

Port Phillip mayor Bernadene Voss said the council encouraged the developer to make further site improvements.

Resident Cher Beggs said the vacant site was a disgraceful welcome for tourists arriving in the world’s most liveable city.

“It’s disgusting. Welcome to Rubbishville,” she said.

“It’s the entrance to Melbourne: it’s shocking.”

Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association president Eddie Micallef, a former state MP, said it was an embarrassment that tourist buses picked up passengers right in front of the site.

Plans for a $200 million 19-storey tower are in limbo. Picture: Mike Keating.

“So you have a birdseye view of the derelict site in all its glory,” he said. “It’s not only an eyesore for the local community — it’s also disgraceful from the point of view of new arrivals, tourists and international guests coming off the boat and being confronted with it.”

A local trader, who declined to be named, said a hotel should be built on the site.

“There’s no accommodation for tourists. There’s nothing in this area,” he said.

“A hotel would bring life and vitality to the area,” the trader said.

“It’s got to progress.”

Sheik Mubarak Al Abdullah Al-Mubarak al-Sabah, from Kuwait’s ruling family, owns the site through his investment firm Action Group Holdings.

Action Group’s 19-storey tower proposal had faced strong resistance from Port Phillip Council and local residents in the nearby Beacon Cove development.

An image of the proposed tower development. Picture: Supplied

While Beacon Cove has five towers of 12 to 14 storeys along the waterfront strip, council sought a 10-storey maximum for Waterfront Place, which Mr Wynne passed last year.

Mr Nehme, who is in partnership with the sheik, said the company was deciding whether the 10-storey limit was financially viable.

“We are working through that process at the moment to see whether it is or it isn’t, and that will come to a head shortly,” he said.

Mr Nehme said the sheik, who he claimed was the biggest Middle Eastern private investor in Australia, had recently visited the site.

“He’s pretty disappointed. It’s just that 10 years is a long time to wait for a foreign investor who has invested a lot of money into the country,” Mr Nehme said.

“The site is an eyesore, but as the gateway to Melbourne it deserves something amazing — we are looking at a high-end development that the city has never seen before.”

A map of Waterfront Place.

A cruise ship docks at Station Pier. Picture: Mike Keating

Cr Voss said that Action Group had not lodged a new application since the 10-storey limit was imposed last May.

“Council is disappointed the owner ... hasn’t done more to improve the appearance of the site,” she said.

Mr Wynne said he approved council’s planning changes to give certainty to residents and the site owner about what could be built, after years of uncertainty.

“While the council is responsible for approving development on that site, I’d love to see a proposal that complements the gateway into Melbourne for passengers coming in on cruise ships,” he said.

Mr Nehme said it was a shame that Mr Wynne had not compromised and set a maximum height limit more in line with nearby towers ranging in height from 12 to 14 levels.

“The minister’s advisory panel had recommended a 10-storey discretionary limit but he went against his own panel and set a mandatory limit,” he said.

“Unfortunately the minister succumbed to community pressure.”

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