Gold Coast-inspired tower plan for Frankston slammed

A plan to build soaring twin towers near the Frankston foreshore has sparked outrage among locals, who say it would resemble the Gold Coast.

An artist’s impression of the high-rise development proposed for Frankston.

High-rise towers up to 30 storeys in height, which have been likened to the Gold Coast and Florida, have been proposed for Frankston under a $90 million plan.

Developers want to build twin towers more than 116m and 84m tall near the Frankston foreshore overlooking Port Phillip Bay, outraging residents and heritage experts.

Plans lodged with Frankston Council propose bulldozing heritage buildings and constructing 30- and 22-storey high rises above a three-storey basement for a 200-room Marriott hotel and luxury apartments.

An artist’s impression of the high-rise proposal.

One of the towers would boast a 22nd storey “sky bar”, with a two-storey joint podium for hotel and residential lobbies, a conference centre, outdoor terraces, offices, shops, pool, bar and gym.

Sustainable Australia State MP Clifford Hayes said it was “a truly insane proposal that is totally out of character with the rest of Frankston”.

“Allowing this twin tower monstrosity in an otherwise low-density suburb will open the floodgates to a swarm of high-rise developers and set a precedent that would turn Frankston into a concrete metropolis like Box Hill,’’ he said.

“If this 30-storey tower is approved, developers will use this as a precedent at VCAT to get approval for any and every egregious development they see fit.’’

Frankston resident and land tenure, population and environment sociologist Sheila Newman said: “They want to turn it into the Gold Coast, New York, Florida’’.

Sheila Newman and James Sinnamon outside the heritage home in Frankston that developers want to destroy to build two towers. Picture: Josie Hayden

“Such buildings are incongruous to the natural area and form shadows and obstacles to views and destroy the openness we currently enjoy in the built landscape,’’ she said.

She said the permit application “looks like a huge ambit claim which will be used as a battering ram to destroy Frankston’s low-intensity low-rise development’’.

Three heritage buildings constructed between the 1930s and 60s on the Davey St site would be demolished to make way for the development, to include 116 units and four serviced apartments.

A heritage overlay for the 3318 sqm Davey St precinct was introduced by the council in 2010, with a report stating it was of “aesthetic and historical significance’’.

“The precinct retains its inter-war and immediate post-war architectural character to a high degree of integrity and demonstrates a range of handsome building styles of the period,’’ it said.

But several buildings on the prime site, previously used as doctor’s surgeries and homes, have been allowed to fall into disrepair.

With state parliament this year passing laws to stop developers allowing heritage homes to decay so they could justify demolition, Mr Hayes urged the Andrews government to intervene.

“Hopefully this new legislation is more than window dressing and the government actually puts these regulations to use to protect Victoria’s heritage,’’ he said.

A planning permit application to the council suggested the development would create 209 jobs during construction and another 54 ongoing.