Melbourne’s iconic Nylex Clock sign back on for 24 hours

Melbourne’s iconic Nylex Clock sign is lighting our skyline again after a decade long absence. But if you want to see the sign in all its glory, you’ll have to get in quick.

Melbourne’s iconic Nylex Clock is back for a limited time. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Melbourne, you’ve got less than 24 hours to see the iconic Nylex Clock lit up.

While the clock itself remains dark, the bright green, pink and yellow of the Nylex sign is lighting up a dreary Melbourne skyline for the first time in half a decade.

At about 11am today the neon landmark atop the old Nylex silos was switched on for the first time since 2015, but will be switched off again at 10am tomorrow.

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A render showing the plans for the redeveloped site.

It follows revelations another of the city’s iconic signs, the Little Audrey Skipping Girl Vinegar sign in nearby Abbotsford, could be moved as part of a sale process underway at the moment.

The sign was switched off when Nylex went into administration in 2009, and has since only been briefly illuminated by a group calling themselves the Nylex Clock Collective in 2015.

A microbrewery is also planned for the Malt District redevelopment.

Developer Caydon Property Group is staging a $1 billion redevelopment of the site and switched the sign on today to check what components were still working ahead of a planned restoration.

Speaking at the top of the silos this morning, Caydon chief executive Joe Russo said it was the first time he had seen the sign lit up since he bought the mostly derelict site for $38 million in 2014.

The future headquarters of MYOB at the Malt District.

“A lot of people really love it and are really attached to it, which is why we want to get it active as soon as possible,” Mr Russo said.

The sign will be removed from the top of the silos in about 18 months time, spend about six months being refurbished, and won’t be switched on again until about 2022 when it is reinstalled atop a glass extrusion that will raise it another 15m higher in the skyline.

A render showing the lobby of the 25hours hotel planned for the site.

The iconic clock and temperature gauge at the top of the sign will need transformers replaced, and will not function again until 2022.

The developer also announced a number of changes to their plans for the one-time Cremorne Brewery site, including a massive reduction in the 1000 apartments initially planned for the site to just 200.

Another view of the planned hotel.

There will now be a greater focus on office spaces and a hotel.

Plans for a 43-room boutique hotel have now more than quadrupled to 206, with Accor Hotels today revealed as the preferred operators.

The hotel will operate as a 25hours branded hotel, with a specific Melbourne theme including a rooftop bar and restaurant.

An office building will be integrated into the silos on the site that support the Victoria Bitter sign.

It will replace a second apartment building planned for the site.

A hospitality and retail precinct, including a microbrewery, is also being developed.

The microbrewery will be constructed in the buildings that once housed the Cremorne Brewery, with the last pneumatic malting press in Australia to be refurbished as part of the redevelopment.

Residents will begin moving into the Coppins Corner apartments complex in December this year.

Residents and office workers are expected to begin moving into the project later this year, including accounting software firm MYOB, who will be headquartered at the site from July this year.

The developer is also now offering leases to a series of offices that will be integrated into the site’s iconic silos by 2021.

A render showing the interior of one of the Coppins Corner apartments.

The wider project is not expected to be complete until 2023.