Finbar Group is confident it will start building its $380 million Civic Heart project in South Perth later this year, after the massive apartment development received planning approval to proceed yesterday.
The proposal comprises a 38-storey tower containing 294 apartments, as well as 11,900 square metres of commercial and retail space, including a new supermarket, on the Civic Triangle site bordered by Mends Street, Labouchere Road and Mill Point Road.
It was approved by the metropolitan central development assessment panel yesterday, paving the way for marketing of the 294 apartments to begin in August.
Late last week, Finbar announced it was expanding the plan to include the heritage-listed Australia Post building on Mill Point Road, a move designed to enhance the retail and commercial offering of the precinct.
Finbar managing director Darren Pateman today said the project had the potential to become a significant entry statement to South Perth, where there was a growing list of large-scale apartment proposals.
"Even though Civic Heart is our highest value single stage project to date, it's more about the various design elements, the scale and the importance of what we are providing to the South Perth community," Mr Pateman said in a statement to the ASX.
"These aspects make it the most challenging and exciting project in our company's history and we look forward to creating it."
An artist's impression of the Mends Street frontage of the Civic Heart plan.
Across the road, Finbar is also advancing plans to develop its Aurelia project, a 118-apartment development where building is expected to start later this month.
The developer also recently bought an adjacent site to Aurelia, where it is planning a $60 million, 56-apartment project.
Finbar also has significant competition in South Perth, with Devwest Group, Zone Q Investments, Edge Visionary Living and Westbridge Property Group all at various stages of construction or planning for major apartment projects.
That wave of apartment proposals has raised concerns from local residents, who are worried about the impact on traffic stemming from the increased density.
However, the projects are all within South Perth's Station Precinct, an area where the City of South Perth relaxed its height limits to allow the private sector to bolster the case for a train station to be built in the suburb.
Midway through last month, City of South Perth Mayor Sue Doherty dismissed residents' claims of poor planning for the area, saying the council had been very considered over a long period in developing the strategy.
"There has been considerable long term planning by the cty, with the current set of provisions guiding development in the precinct the result of some seven years of investigation and statutory processes with extensive community involvement," Ms Doherty said.