The Block: Plans lodged for TV makeover of notorious St Kilda flophouse The Gatwick Hotel

THE reality TV led rescue of notorious St Kilda flophouse, The Gatwick Hotel, is underway with plans for a major overhaul of the site submitted to the local council.

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THE reality TV led rescue of notorious St Kilda flophouse, The Gatwick Hotel, is underway with plans for a major overhaul of the site submitted to the Port Phillip Council.

The plans propose an additional level for the property, the construction of eight apartments within the old rooming house and a reduction in car parking provisions from 13 to six.

The Block executive producer Julian Cress said the Gatwick project, the biggest ever undertaken by the hit Channel 9 show, was progressing well.

“We have our plans in with Port Phillip Council now so they are under consideration and it will probably be a few months before we have an approval,” Cress said.

The Gatwick Hotel in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda is going to be the location for The Block in 2018. Picture: Steve Tanner

“We are always very open with the councils about what we are seeking to do and we shared the original concepts for what we thought would be the right solution for the Gatwick with them (Port Phillip) several months ago and the response was very positive.

“Now we have got to go through the official process of them going through the plans in detail but I am very confident that what we are wanting to do is very sympathetic to the heritage restoration of that building.

“We would never want to destroy that anyway, frankly that was one of the main reasons were interested in it.”

About 60 residents of the notorious property on Fitzroy Street have been relocated to alternative accommodation with a handful more believed to be waiting for new housing arrangements.

The company through which The Block buys its property will take possession of the site once all tenants have been rehoused.

Cress said the Gatwick overhaul would most likely work on similar timelines to this season’s development in Elsternwick which started filming, with Scott Cam and Shelley Craft back as hosts, at the end of April.

The Block is currently filming in Elsternwick with Scott Cam and Shelley Craft back as hosts. Picture: Rob Leeson

“The vendors have been working to successfully relocate the tenants and that process has been going on now for three or four months and it has been really successful,” he said.

“We were never going to try to accelerate that process. They needed the time to make sure those people got alternative accommodation that’s better than what they had and that has been the case for everybody so far.

“We are all about leaving the streets that we work in better for having us and I am certain that Fitzroy street will be one of those.”

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