Plans to turn popular pub into apartments
Another Melbourne watering hole could be no more. Here’s why this art deco pub is set to close its doors, making way for a huge redevelopment.
VIC News
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One of Queen Victoria Market traders’ favourite watering holes is set to close and be redeveloped as nurses’ accommodation.
Plans have been submitted to the city council to turn the Central Club Hotel on Victoria St into an eight-storey apartment block.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation bought the two-storey, Victorian-era building in North Melbourne for $8.72 million in late 2017.
The nursing union wants to keep the art deco facade of the two-storey building.
The revamp is to provide short-term accommodation for nurses visiting Melbourne for conferences, training and meetings.
The union has about 86,000 members, a third of whom live in regional Victoria.
The ANMF’s Elizabeth St headquarters backs on to O’Connell St, opposite the pub.
The plans, drawn up by Southbank architects BayleyWard, include 33 serviced apartments – 22 studio and 11 one-bedroom – across the top six floors.
The rooftop will have solar panels, storage, beehives and gardens to grow produce for the new dining operation.
No car or motorcycle parking will be provided under the current submission. The cellar would be used as a services area.
The 27m-high proposal is above the area’s 24m height overlay, in place, in part, to avoid overshadowing of the Queen Victoria Market.
The brick pub, operated by the Aidone brothers for about four decades, was renovated by the current managers in April last year. Short-stay accommodation on the first floor is offered for about $79 a night.
ANMF (Victorian Branch) secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said that building quality, affordable accommodation across the road from the federation’s Elizabeth St headquarters would provide regional and rural members the opportunity to come to Melbourne to attend courses and conferences and expand their clinical and professional development.
“As part of the development ANMF wants to retain a food and beverage offering on the lower floors,’’ Ms Fitzpatrick said.
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The likely closure of the Central Club would be the latest pub to call last drinks across Melbourne.
Another Central Club Hotel, in Swan St, Richmond, is also facing redevelopment. Plans to convert the pub and build a seven-storey apartment block next to the music venue are being considered by Yarra Council.